BetaNews.Com (246 non lus)

Nowadays, people are quite good at typing on touchscreens. Let's be honest though -- using a bigger physical keyboard will almost always be preferable. With that said, no one is going to walk around with a giant full-sized keyboard from their desk -- that would not be convenient. Thankfully, Logitech created a product that manages to find a nice balance. The Keys-To-Go, as it is called, is a thin and light Bluetooth keyboard that you can throw in a bag and use with your iPhone, iPad, Android, or Windows device. It is even compatible with Apple TV, making it a… [Continue Reading]

Vulnerabilities have been discovered in LTE that would make it possible for an attacker to tap into 4G networks for the purposes of spying on and hijacking 4G browsing sessions. Security researchers from Ruhr-Universität, Bochum and New York University, Abu Dhabi show how three different attacks can be launched on the second layer of LTE -- also known as the data link layer. Two passive attacks allow for identity mapping and website fingerprinting, while the active cryptographic aLTEr attack allows for DNS spoofing and network connection redirection. The researchers, David Rupprecht, Katharina Kohls, Thorsten Holz, and Christina Pöpper, are due… [Continue Reading]

Microsoft's Surface range could one day include a folding, dual-screen device. Codenamed Andromeda, the device has been in the works for a couple of years and appears to neatly straddle the laptop and mobile categories -- seemingly trying to make up for Windows Phone. Leaked internal documents have come to light that reveal Microsoft's plans for "a new pocketable Surface device form factor that brings together innovative new hardware and software experiences to create a truly personal and versatile computing experience". See also: Microsoft pulls the plug on Windows 10's game-changing Sets feature -- for now Microsoft has the patent… [Continue Reading]

Public cloud services can be affordable for many enterprise applications. But achieving the same service levels that the enterprise data center delivers for high availability and high performance for mission-critical applications can be quite costly. The reason is: high availability and high performance, especially for database applications, both consume more resources and that costs more money -- sometimes considerably more. Is there a way to make public cloud services equally, if not more, cost-effective than a high availability, high performance private cloud? Yes, but that requires carefully managing how the public cloud services are utilized by each application. The objective… [Continue Reading]

Opera Software has released Opera 54.0, the latest version of its Chromium-based browser for Windows, Mac and Linux. The new release adds two new features: the first allows users to set up customized news feeds on the main Speed Dial page. The second makes it possible to recover the browser and settings more easily thanks to a visible new Update & Recovery menu section. The new Update & Recovery option -- accessible from the main Opera menu -- provides users with two buttons. The first -- Update -- merely apes what’s already accessible via Opera > About Opera. However, the… [Continue Reading]

Sportswear company Adidas has warned US customers about a security breach that took place earlier this week. The firm says that on Tuesday it was made aware that "an unauthorized party claims to have acquired limited data associated with certain Adidas consumers". Two days later, the company started to notify its customers that personal data -- including contact information and usernames -- may have been compromised. See also: Gentoo Linux Github Organization hacked and repo code compromised Don't panic! Hackers have not found a way to bypass the iPhone passcode limit Kaspersky: Chinese hackers LuckyMouse hit national data center Adidas… [Continue Reading]

When it comes to navigation apps, there's no denying that Google Maps is king -- but Apple is trying to change that. With the impending release of iOS 12 is also coming a complete redesign of the company's own Maps app. Apple is not only rebuilding the app from the ground up, but it is doing so with a combination of "first-party" data gathered by its own camera cars as well as data from iPhone users. The changes are going to start to appear in the next beta version of iOS 12. See also: Apple releases the first public beta… [Continue Reading]

Things have been quite exciting lately for fans of Linux Mint. The much anticipated MintBox Mini 2 is available for purchase, and we learned Linux Mint Debian Edition 3 should be available next month in Beta. Of course, what fans of Linux Mint have really been looking forward to is the release of Tara -- version 19 of the operating system. It was supposed to be released by the end of June, and today, it just makes it in under the wire. Yes, Linux fans, you can download Linux Mint 19 "Tara" immediately. You can choose between three desktop environments --… [Continue Reading]

Two-hundred-and-eighty-nine in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps, games and extensions released for Windows 10 on the Windows Store in the past seven days. Microsoft released a massive new build of the upcoming next version of Windows 10 this week. It includes improvements to Microsoft Edge and Skype, and other new features, but loses Sets. As always, if I've missed an app or game that has been released this week that you believe is particularly good, let me know in the comments below or notify me via email. Discounts this week The following list is a… [Continue Reading]

Computer hardware is useless without software. As cool as the diminutive Raspberry Pi computers are, for instance, they are just paperweights until you install an operating system. The little computers can run many OSes -- including an IoT variant of Windows 10 -- but really, Linux makes it shine. One of the most popular Linux-based operating systems for Raspberry Pi is the Debian-based Raspbian. This is the "official" distribution for the Pi hardware, and today, it gets a major update. The Chromium web browser gets bumped up to version 65, while a new and faster PDF viewer, called qpdfView, replaces… [Continue Reading]

Cybercriminals use a variety of tactics to cloak their activity and that includes using trusted tools, like PowerShell, to retrieve and execute malicious code from remote sources. A new report from eSentire reveals that 91 percent of endpoint incidents detected in Q1 2018 involved known, legitimate binaries. "eSentire Threat Intelligence data shows heavy use of legitimate Microsoft binaries, such as PowerShell and mshta.exe, popular tools for downloading and executing malicious code in the initial stages of a malware infection," says Eldon Sprickerhoff, founder and chief security strategist, eSentire. "PowerShell can also be leveraged by adversaries to reduce their on-disk footprint… [Continue Reading]

A hacker managed to take control of the Github account for Gentoo Linux, going as far as inserting malicious code into the distros. The malware was designed to delete user data. Although the situation is now under control, an investigation is underway to determine what happened. Anyone who has downloaded a Gentoo distro or other files recently, is warned to "refrain from using code from the Gentoo Github Organization" for the time being. See also: Microsoft officially announces agreement to acquire GitHub in $7.5 billion deal Google releases open source 'GIF for CLI' terminal tool on GitHub Linux Mint Debian… [Continue Reading]

Throughout June, to celebrate BetaNews’ 20th birthday, we have been giving away some incredible prizes and while the month is drawing to a close now, we still have more giveaways for you enter. The diskAshur Pro 2 range of portable USB hard drives from iStorage makes it easy to keep your personal files and folders private thanks to the integrated PIN authenticated XTS-AES 256-bit hardware encryption. Unlocking the drive is just a matter of tapping your PIN into the keypad and pressing the unlock button. To secure it again, just press the lock button, or eject the drive. SEE ALSO:… [Continue Reading]

At Mobile World Congress Shanghai, OnePlus CEO and founder Pete Lau said that his company is determined to make a proper entry into the North American market and is working with US carriers to make it happen. OnePlus has also said that it is looking to produce a 5G phone in 2019, and it will take advantage of its relationship with Qualcomm to make this happen. For current and future OnePlus owners, the company also made commitments about software and security updates. See also: Fix on the way for OnePlus 6 bootloader security flaw OnePlus unveils the OnePlus 6 smartphone,… [Continue Reading]

Security software firm Avast acquired Piriform -- the maker of several popular system utilities, including CCleaner -- last year. Things didn’t go too well from the off however, as shortly afterwards, it was revealed that CCleaner had been hacked and a dangerously modified version had been available to download for a number of weeks. Avast was quick to point out Piriform’s IT systems were breached before it acquired the company, but it was still in charge when the infected build was released. That sort of thing is very unfortunate -- and even more embarrassing given the business Avast is in… [Continue Reading]

Summertime only just began, and already, it is hot as hell outside. To be honest, I can deal with the heat -- it is the humidity that makes me have a bad time. As a fat guy, this means the back my shirts are usually soaked with sweat. Obesity aside, even thin folks can be miserable in hot and humid weather. Luckily, I have central air conditioning at home -- one of life's greatest pleasures. As a tech enthusiast, I of course have it hooked to a Nest thermostat, which in turn, can be controlled by voice using Alexa. Not… [Continue Reading]

Amazon is always looking for new ways to get its Alexa digital assistant into more homes. It’s rolled out a variety of Echo products over the years, most recently the Fire TV Cube, and Echo Dot Kids Edition. A year ago, the company introduced the Echo Show, an Alexa powered device with a built-in 7-inch touchscreen. Today, the retail giant announces a free software update to turn an existing Fire tablet into a slimmed down Show, and there’s a new optional charging dock to complete the experience too. SEE ALSO: Amazon introduces its largest and fastest tablet for kids Show… [Continue Reading]

A new report from log management platform Scalyr reveals that as organizations shift from more traditional architectures to microservices, they release software more frequently, but spend more time troubleshooting issues. The State of DevOps Observability Report, based on a survey of 155 software development practitioners, finds that organizations are shifting away from traditional, monolithic architectures, with three-quarters of survey respondents delivering at least some of their applications and more than one-third delivering most of their applications as microservices. However, this shift has put pressure on DevOps observability. Despite having multiple visibility tools, respondents who deliver software in this modern way… [Continue Reading]

Amazon’s Fire tablets have been a big success for the company, with the Kids Editions proving very popular with parents. As well as offering age-appropriate content, they come with a kid proof case which makes them much harder to break than regular tablets. Today the retail giant introduces a new model to the range. The Fire HD 10 Kids Edition is its largest kid friendly device to date, and for a price that’s very reasonable. SEE ALSO: Amazon's new Show Mode turns a Fire tablet into a slimmed-down Echo Show -- for free The Fire HD 10 Kids Edition offers… [Continue Reading]

Certificate authority Comodo CA is expanding out of its traditional area to launch a new platform designed to secure Internet of Things devices. Hackers increasingly target IoT devices that have no security embedded and exposed vulnerabilities. The new Comodo CA IoT unified portal directly addresses this problem by enabling trusted, third-party, mutual authentication of devices to networks. IoT PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) Manager is available across a wide range of industries and applications including industrial automation, medical devices, automotive, telecommunications, smart city/smart buildings and in consumer electronics. "The continued use of self-signed certificates, shared keys and default passwords for IoT… [Continue Reading]

Linux Mint is an Ubuntu-based desktop Linux distribution, right? Yes and no. While the "normal" version of the operating system is, in fact, based on Canonical's distro, there is yet another version. Called Linux Mint Debian Edition, or LMDE, it is based on Debian -- as the name implies. Today, we learn some interesting news. The Beta of the next version of the operating system, LMDE 3 -- code-named "Cindy" -- should be released next month, in July. "Next on our list is LMDE 3 aka 'Cindy'. We upgraded it with the latest Cinnamon and all the components which got… [Continue Reading]

Cybercriminals are using mobile devices to avoid detection and execute a number of nefarious acts, according to a new report. The study from bot mitigation specialist Distil Networks finds 5.8 percent -- around one in 17 -- of all mobile devices across six major cellular networks are used in such automated attacks and represent eight percent of all bad bot traffic. The bad bot traffic is deployed against businesses with a web presence, to carry out acts that include web scraping, brute force attacks, competitive data mining, online fraud, account hijacking, data theft, spam and digital ad fraud. Distil sampled… [Continue Reading]

A new Harris Poll commissioned by insider threat detection company Dtex Systems looks at employee attitudes towards the monitoring of their digital activities. Carried out in the wake of data collection, monitoring and privacy scandals at Facebook and elsewhere, it shows that 45 percent of Americans believe it is at least sometimes acceptable for employers to monitor employees' digital activities to protect against security threats and data breaches. A much higher percentage (64 percent) believe that employers have the right to monitor employees' digital activities on personal or work-issued devices used to conduct work for security purposes, as long as… [Continue Reading]

Back in March, we reported on the Mintbox Mini 2 -- a diminutive Linux Mint desktop PC manufactured by a company called "Compulab." Of course, it can run other distributions too, such as Ubuntu and Fedora. Heck, it can even run Windows 10 if you want/need. This is the second generation of Mintbox Mini with the big difference being a switch from AMD to Intel. The fanless device is not a powerhouse, but it should run the Linux distribution like a champ. Quite frankly, it is very beautiful too -- the fins look cool as hell. Barring any last-minute issues,… [Continue Reading]

The next big feature update of Windows 10, codenamed Redstone 5, has been shaping up nicely, with lots of great improvements and new additions. The highlight of this future update is unquestionably Sets, a tab-based feature that’s designed to let you access related web pages, research documents, files, and applications in one location. Sets was originally planned to be part of the April 2018 Update alongside Timeline, but Microsoft needed a little more time to get things right, and so pushed it back. Sadly it now looks as if it won’t make it into the following feature update either. SEE… [Continue Reading]

It’s been a couple of weeks since Microsoft last rolled out a new Windows 10 Redstone 5 build for Insiders, but today the wait for an update is over. Build 17704, for those on the Fast ring and Skip Ahead, includes a number of big improvements and changes. SEE ALSO: Microsoft pulls the plug on Windows 10's game-changing Sets feature -- for now First up, there’s the obligatory Microsoft Edge improvements, including a new Edge Beta logo, so you tell the difference between the stable and preview versions. It’s not something Microsoft has spent very long on though, so don’t… [Continue Reading]

Samsung has typically unveiled new models in the Galaxy Note series towards the end of the third quarter, but this time around the South Korean maker is speeding things up. The upcoming Galaxy Note 9 will make its public debut on August 9, during the second Unpacked event of 2018. We do not know yet when it will actually hit store shelves, but, knowing Samsung, interested buyers should be able to snag one shortly after that. This follows an announcement by the FCC (the US Federal Communications Commission) which says that it approved the SM-N960F model from Samsung, a model… [Continue Reading]

Google is a huge proponent of open source. The company is constantly releasing projects on GitHub -- a huge win for the open source community. Not to mention, Google leverages one of the most important open source projects for its operating systems -- the Linux kernel. Both Android and Chrome OS, for instance, are Linux-based. Today, Google becomes a Platinum Member of the Linux Foundation. This is big news, as not only will Google benefit from the platinum perks, but arguably more importantly, the Linux community will experience a huge financial win. You see, the annual cost for being a… [Continue Reading]

June is almost over, which unfortunately means the BetaNews 20th Birthday celebration is almost over. Don't worry, we will still have more giveaways to do before July arrives. Today, we are giving away a pair of Logitech Doodle Collection mobile wireless mice -- two winners can each win one. These mice are really fun, as they feature super funky designs -- I love it. While these small mice can be used at home with a desktop, they are more appropriate for portability with a laptop. I really like that they aren't Bluetooth or rechargeable. They leverage a small USB dongle,… [Continue Reading]

As workforces are increasingly spread over multiple locations, in the field or working from home, keeping them up to date and engaged with company news can be a tough task. Increasingly managers are turning to podcasts to help keep sales teams competitive and build corporate community and business alignment among employees, partners and customers. Enterprise communications company uStudio is launching a podcasting solution purpose-built for private enterprise communications. Called uStudio Enterprise Podcasting, it comprises a fully-customizable mobile application with channels, user subscription and off-line listening options, as well as multi-tier content security. Content administrators can easily manage and publish podcasts… [Continue Reading]

We all sign up to online accounts for various things but over time it can become hard to remember which address you used for each site, what password you used or indeed whether you’ve previously signed up to a site at all. Password management specialist Dashlane is launching a new feature for mobile users of its password manager called Inbox Security Scan, to give people an insight into the current state of their online accounts. It's available for Gmail on iOS and Android, as well as Outlook, Hotmail, MSN, and Live.com on Android. It scans your email inbox, finds all… [Continue Reading]

A new report from McAfee Labs has seen coin mining malware grow by 629 percent in the first quarter 2018 as criminals seek to cash in on cryptocurrency trends. On average the company has seen five new threat samples every second, including growth in cryptojacking and other cryptocurrency mining malware, and notable campaigns demonstrating a deliberate drive to technically improve on the most sophisticated, established attacks of 2017. "Cybercriminals will gravitate to criminal activity that maximizes their profit," says Steve Grobman, chief technology officer at McAfee. "In recent quarters we have seen a shift to ransomware from data-theft, as ransomware… [Continue Reading]

Google has announced a new storage option for developers using Google Cloud Platform. The new Cloud Filestore is due to launch in beta next month, and it provides a managed NAS in the cloud. Google describes Cloud Filestore as a "managed file storage for applications that require a file system interface and a shared file system", and the aim is to offer higher performance to users that need it than the existing options do. See also: Google rebrands its advertising line-up -- bye bye to AdWords and DoubleClick, hello to Google Ads Google adds DRM to Android APKs to verify… [Continue Reading]

Twitter -- like many social media platforms -- has its fair share of problems, including trolling, spam, abuse and fake accounts. The company has fought something of a losing battle in trying to regain control of things, but it is confident it has started to make progress. In a blog post in which it shares details of this progress, Twitter also reveals plans to crack down on people who "try to take advantage of our openness". In a bid to cut down on the number of spam accounts that crop up, Twitter is going to require anyone signing up for… [Continue Reading]

Awareness of cybersecurity at board level is growing as last year's WannaCry attack has highlighted the need to guard against attacks. The research, conducted by Vanson Bourne, as part of an international survey of 500 businesses in the UK, France, Germany and the USA, was commissioned by endpoint protection specialist SentinelOne. Half of all respondents say that there is more visibility of attacks at board level, as reported bottom line losses by companies like Maersk have highlighted the economic cost of ransomware. The biggest board level reaction to ransomware has been on user education, with 54 percent of respondents saying… [Continue Reading]

There has been a spate of bans on cryptocurrency ads in recent months, but Facebook has had something of a change of heart and has decided that some such ads are permissible on its platform. It is important to note that this is just a relaxation of the ban Facebook introduced back in January, not a complete lifting of it. There are various caveats here, including the fact that advertisers will have to be "pre-approved". See also: Apple slaps a ban on cryptocurrency mining apps Twitter to ban an array of cryptocurrency ads Google slaps a ban on cryptocurrency ads… [Continue Reading]

Do you know what the official language of the United States is? The answer may surprise you. If you said "English," you'd be quite wrong. Actually, it's a trick question -- there is no official language of the USA. That's why it's particularly ignorant to get mad at immigrants for not speaking English. Hell, getting mad at people for speaking their native language would be abhorrent even if English was the official language. With all of that said, a lot of technology -- such as voice assistants -- are designed for English speakers. Today, Google bucks that trend by announcing… [Continue Reading]

Getting hit by a ransomware attack is bad enough; it means that your files have been encrypted and you'll be asked to pay a fee in a cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin or Ethereum to unlock them. The problem is that paying the ransom is in no way a guarantee that your files will be decrypted -- the ransomware was created by criminals, after all. If you've been struck by the Thanatos ransomware, however, there's good news from Cisco Talos. The company has analyzed the malware and developed a free decryption tool that will enable you to get your files back… [Continue Reading]

It can be difficult for security teams to identify the weak spots in their organization's controls that put the security of the business at risk. Managed security services provider Proficio is addressing this by launching a new version of its ProView Plus consumer portal that includes ThreatInsight risk scoring. The ThreatInsight score is calculated based on Proficio's proprietary technology and provides customers with intelligent recommendations on how to improve their security posture. It also allows customers to see how their score compares to Proficio’s complete customer base and their specific industry sector. It uses a dashboard that leverages advanced analytics… [Continue Reading]

Tablets running Chrome OS are actually a thing now, as the Chromebook Tab 10 shows us. While that device is mostly aimed at education, it's only a matter of time before companies offer similar devices for business and personal use too. Since Chrome OS can run Android apps now, some people expect it to replace Android on tablets in the future. I'm not yet sold on that concept -- I still prefer Android running Chrome rather than Chrome running Android, but I'll keep an open mind. The biggest problem with Chrome OS tablets -- especially for education -- is the… [Continue Reading]

Amazon’s Kindle hardware and associated online ebook store have revolutionized the reading experience. While some folks are scared of change, and desperately clutch their paper books, the future is clearly digital. Quite frankly, it’s wasteful to produce paper books. Not to mention, they take up too much room in a home. Surprisingly, Kindle does not support the Arabic language. Today this changes, however, as Amazon launches more than 12,000 ebooks in that language. "Amazon has brought the same Kindle features that customers around the world love to Arabic language reading. With the Kindle app and Kindle devices, you can sample… [Continue Reading]

No business is immune from cyber attack, and smaller companies are often targeted as they lack the resources to put into first class protection. A new survey by cybersecurity company Webroot of 600 IT decision makers (ITDMs) at small- to medium-sized businesses, finds that the attacks organizations believed themselves to be most susceptible to in 2017 are rapidly shifting in 2018, while businesses still feel underprepared. Phishing is now the number one attack that ITDMs believe their organizations are most susceptible to in 2018. Fear of phishing is up from number three last year, with new forms of malware dropping… [Continue Reading]

Parents have concerns about not only how long their children spend online, but also what they are using various connected devices for. In just a few days' time, T-Mobile is launching its answer to the problem: FamilyMode. This is a service that makes it possible to keep an eye on how long devices are being used for, and to monitor internet usage. FamilyMode uses a hardware base station and a mobile app (available for iOS and Android) to give parents monitoring and control over devices connected via either Wi-Fi or cellular. Available as a subscription service, T-Mobile FamilyMode costs $10… [Continue Reading]

A report published by the Intercept alleges that AT&T has eight buildings across the US which are used to collaborate on surveillance with the NSA. Found in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, DC, these "peering" facilities are home to networking equipment through which a lot of US and global internet traffic is routed. The Intercept says that there is a lot of evidence to suggest that "the buildings are central to an NSA spying initiative that has for years monitored billions of emails, phone calls, and online chats passing across US territory".… [Continue Reading]

The performance of an app can have a big impact on how users see the business behind it. For developers therefore it's important to understand how their app will work in the real world. To help with this, mobile analytics specialist Adjust is launching a benchmarking tool that will enable companies to understand how well their app is performing across markets and platforms. "Due to fierce competition, app marketing teams no longer focus solely on their own segments, but seek bigger growth in international markets," says Christian Henschel, CEO of Adjust. "Our benchmarking tool enables mobile marketers to define and benchmark… [Continue Reading]

Given recent scares about digital assistants recording conversations, it's perhaps not surprising that levels of trust in these devices are not high. The latest State of Digital Lifestyles survey from Limelight Networks reveals that adoption of digital assistants is highest in the US where 35 percent of consumers currently own one, however, these consumers still have major trust issues with the devices. Security and possible hacking into digital assistants is a concern 43 for percent, and 46 percent express concerns about data privacy. When it comes to performing specific tasks, less than a third (31 percent) would fully trust a… [Continue Reading]

The rise in popularity of smart devices in the home -- coupled with our continuing love of laptops, tablets and phones -- means that we're more reliant on wireless networks than ever before. But the security we rely on to keep things safe is at least 14 years old, if not older (the widely used WPA2 started life back in 2004). Clearly, it's time for a security upgrade, and to this end, the Wi-Fi Alliance has just started certifying devices that support WPA3 -- the predictably-named successor to WPA2. This latest security protocol includes a number of important enhancements, and… [Continue Reading]

If you're keen to try out the next version of iOS without risking the developer preview, you're in luck -- Apple has just released the first public beta of iOS 12, and it's freely available for anyone who fancies it to download. Apple has already revealed quite a bit about the latest version of its mobile operating system, and at WWDC it focused on the performance enhancements on offer. But iOS 12 is about much more than this. There are also updates to Siri, key apps, ARKit 2, Animoji, Memoji and much more. Read on to find out how to… [Continue Reading]

Mozilla has released Firefox Quantum 61.0 for desktop, along with Firefox for Android 61.0. The new release sells itself on major performance improvements, security updates and some user interface changes and tweaks. Also improved is the bookmark sync function and access to search engines. Performance enhancements are numerous in Firefox 61: first, there are updates to Quantum’s CSS support to speed up page rendering, which apply to both Android and desktop users. Desktop users should also see page rendering times reduced further thanks to a new "retained display list" feature, which updates pages as they’re changed rather than reloading everything… [Continue Reading]

Video game streaming on platforms like Twitch and Mixer is huge nowadays. Hell, it isn't even just a hobby -- some of these players are making serious money by streaming themselves playing popular games online. Of course, it isn't just about gaming -- these content creators also offer intriguing personalities. Streaming PC games can be quite easy, but what about console gaming? For that, your best bet is to leverage a capture card -- a device that connects the video-out from your console to your PC. Today, AVerMedia launches two such capture cards, and both support 4K -- perfect for… [Continue Reading]

I'm a big fan of some Surface hardware. Microsoft's own laptops and tablets are often well-made and very elegant. Quite frankly, if you want a portable Windows 10 PC, the Surface Laptop is a great pick. The Surface Pro is a solid choice too, although it can be difficult to use in a lap -- a non-starter for many. The Surface Book series and Surface Studio are decent choices too, albeit pricey. Unfortunately, while the latest Surface Pro and Surface Laptop computers are rather great, they have one huge issue -- lack of USB-C. It is mind-boggling that Microsoft omitted… [Continue Reading]

Some people are worried about the prospects of robots taking over their jobs, but there are some tasks around the home that you would relish a robot doing for you -- such as vacuuming. Robot vacuum cleaners are fantastic time-saving gadgets, and thanks to Wellbots you can win a Neato Botvac D7 Connected Robot Vacuum for your home as part of BetaNews' ongoing 20th birthday giveaway celebrations. SEE ALSO: #BetaNews20 Giveaway: Meural Canvas Wi-Fi enabled digital art frame from Wellbots #BetaNews20 Giveaway: Linksys WRT32XB AC3200 Xbox One wireless gaming router #BetaNews20 Giveaway: HyperX Cloud Alpha gaming headset for PC, Xbox,… [Continue Reading]

Nowadays, people take technology for granted. For instance, we aren't far removed from depending on paper maps to find our way while driving -- turn-by-turn navigation is like magic! And yet, many folks just aren't impressed by it -- especially those born after public GPS became commonplace. Companies like Google could rest on their laurels since mapping technologies are "good enough," but the search giant is constantly innovating and adding new features. While Google Maps is more popular than Google Earth these days, the latter is still used by many. Today, the search giant adds what it calls the "Measure… [Continue Reading]

When it comes to messaging tools, people have started to show greater interest in whether encryption is used for security, and the same for websites -- but not so much with email. Thanks to the work of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, however, email security is being placed at the top of the agenda. The privacy group today announces STARTTLS Everywhere, its new initiative to improve the security of the email eco-system. STARTTLS is an addition to SMTP, and while it does not add end-to-end encryption, it does provide hop-to-hop encryption, which is very much a step in the right direction.… [Continue Reading]

Starting next month, the number of views song videos receive on YouTube and other sites will start to count towards their position in the UK singles chart. It's a move that could completely shake up the charts, just like the counting of digital downloads and streams did previously. Starting on Friday, video views on YouTube, Apple, Tidal and Spotify will start to be counted by the Official Charts Company, and will be included in the first chart of July. It is only official music videos that will be included in the count -- any user-generated content will be ignored. With… [Continue Reading]

AT&T has revealed plans to acquire the ad platform AppNexus which competes directly with the likes of Google and Facebook. While the exact terms of the deal have not yet been shared, recent rumors suggested that AT&T was willing to part with $1.6 billion for the company. The acquisition is expected to close by Q3 of this year, and AT&T says that the two companies will operate as separate entities until then. After the acquisition, AppNexus will become a part of AT&T advertising and analytics. AT&T says that with the acquisition, it is looking to accelerate the growth of its… [Continue Reading]

Voice search has become increasingly popular in the last few years and figures from Seotribunal show that around half of teens and 41 percent of adults are using it in their day-to-day activities. That number is still rising too with 1.8 million people expected to be using voice search daily by 2021. Seotribunal has put together an infographic showing how the technology is being used and more. In 2017 people were most likely to use voice search at home, but now they're utilizing it in all kinds of places including restaurants, public transport and at work. 52.8 percent use it… [Continue Reading]

Every month there are fresh cryptocurrencies springing up, but new research by Positive.com has discovered an average of five separate vulnerabilities in each initial coin offering (ICO) project examined in 2017. What's more, 47 percent of the ICO vulnerabilities uncovered were medium to high severity. Just one vulnerability is enough for attackers to steal investors' money and do irreparable damage to corporate reputation. Total investment in ICOs exceeded $5 billion in 2017, with the first quarter of 2018 showing no sign of slowing down. With such large sums of money available, incentives for cybercriminals are high, and seven percent of… [Continue Reading]

We’ve written a lot recently about 2018 editions of past Windows operating systems, including Windows 7, XP and even Windows 95. Microsoft Windows 95 Mobile imagines what the 23-year-old OS would look like if it was running on a modern smartphone today, and while its creator firmly has his tongue in cheek here, I have to say it has a certain retro-appeal to it. SEE ALSO: You can now download 5K wallpapers from the '2018 Editions' of Windows 7, XP and more Windows 7 -- 2018 Edition is the Microsoft operating system you've been waiting for Would you swap Windows… [Continue Reading]

When people think of a "smart home," they usually only consider devices inside the dwelling, such as thermostats, lights, and more. A home is more than just a house, however. Most homeowners will tell you that the overall property -- including the yard -- is just as important. Believe it or not, there are smart devices for outdoors, and not just external security cameras. For instance, Rachio makes a really cool smart sprinkler controller that offers Wi-Fi connectivity. It even has support for Alexa, Nest, and Google Assistant. This week, the company launches a clever companion to its 3rd-generation controller.… [Continue Reading]

DRM is something that's usually associated with streaming music and video, but there's no reason that it can't be put to other uses. Proving this, Google has started using a form of DRM to improve app security by verifying that APKs originate from the Play Store. It's a system that works much like signed drivers in Windows. The aim is simple: to improve the security of Android users by ensuring that they are using genuine apps that have not been tampered with in any way. Google is not referring to the new system as DRM, saying instead that it is… [Continue Reading]

Enter the wrong passcode into an iPhone and you'll not only be denied access to it, but also run the risk of wiping its contents if you enter an incorrect code too many times. This is a problem faced by law enforcement agencies when they encounter iPhones in the cases they're working on -- as well as people trying to hack into phones for nefarious purposes -- so it's little wonder that hackers are constantly trying to find a way to earn unlimited guesses at passcodes. One hacker thought he had cracked it. Security researcher Matthew Hickey proudly boasted at… [Continue Reading]

Linux and user data collection. Some people will decry such a thing, but they would be wrong. As long as the collection is opt-in, it is totally acceptable and in line with Linux ideology. When is it questionable? When users don't have a choice. With Windows 10 telemetry, for instance, users can opt out of sharing some data with Microsoft, but not all. And that's a problem. Even if Microsoft's intentions are pure, and designed solely with improving Windows 10, users should be able to refuse all data sharing at time of installation. With Ubuntu desktop, Canonical has started collecting… [Continue Reading]

It is a slow process, but USB-C is gradually becoming more and more popular -- although it's a long way from ubiquity yet. Ready to rock the boat a little, it has emerged that Microsoft holds a patent for a redesigned USB-C connector. The patent is not brand new, but Microsoft's May 2017 filing for an "Ultra-Thin USB-C Connector" has just come to light. Another patent filing from April 2017 describes a new "USB-C Plug Receptacle". While the redesign is hardly going to set the world on fire, it's the sort of thing we could well expect to see in… [Continue Reading]

For some time, a number of MacBook or MacBook Pro users have complained about problems with their keyboards -- specifically that keys either stop working completely, fall off, or become "sticky", resulting in repeated characters. Now, after two years of complaints and a lawsuit about the butterfly mechanism in its keyboards, Apple has finally acknowledged that there is a problem. The company has also launched a keyboard service program so those affected by the problem can get it addressed, free of charge. See also: Bricked iPhones with 'Error 53' just cost Apple $6.7 million in Australia Apple will automatically share… [Continue Reading]

It's officially summer and the weekend is here. For some folks, this means spending time outdoors for the next couple of days. If you are a computer guy or gal, however, you may be sun adverse -- spending time inside tinkering with your PC could be more fun than the beach or the pool. If that is you (it's definitely me!), I have a suggestion -- why not try a new Linux distribution this weekend? Hell, there are countless such operating systems from which to choose. Today, a lesser known Linux-based operating system achieves a milestone. Called "Peppermint," version 9… [Continue Reading]

Fans of Kodi know that there’s a new version of the open source home theater software in development. Kodi 18 Leia introduces a number of big changes, including an overhaul for the Music and Live TV sections. For Windows users there’s a dedicated 64-bit build, Android owners can populate the screen with content using a feature called Smartplaylists, and there have also been numerous changes for Linux. SEE ALSO: How to protect Kodi from cryptojacking The second official Alpha build, now available, improves stability and usability, and Team Kodi recommends you try it out, stating "several tens of thousands users… [Continue Reading]

A study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shone new light on the shortcomings of collecting data from large groups of people during medical research. The longstanding belief is that the bigger the subject pool, the more representative the results will be of the public at large. However, the scientists discovered something different that could impact how people use fitness trackers. Group Data Does Not Indicate Individual Health Factors Scientists found when medical researchers want to know how test subjects feel or what makes them sick, they must focus on individual data, rather than relying on findings… [Continue Reading]

Two-hundred-and-eighty-eight in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps, games and extensions released for Windows 10 on the Windows Store in the past seven days. As always, if I've missed an app or game that has been released this week that you believe is particularly good, let me know in the comments below or notify me via email. Discounts this week The following list is a selection of the best deals. Make sure you check out the Store for all offers. Some apps are discounted for more than one week. Only new apps and games are listed… [Continue Reading]

The invention of the search engine really made the web usable for the masses. Think about it -- if there was no way to search the web, how would you find anything? Say what you want about Google the company, but if its search engine disappeared tomorrow, the world would be a worse place. Of course, Google did not invent the search engine, nor is it the only game in town -- there is also DuckDuckGo, StartPage, and Bing to name a few excellent alternatives. Speaking of Bing, did you know it's actually really good? It's true! For whatever reason,… [Continue Reading]

Cryptojacking might not be as terrifying a threat as ransomware, but it’s a major annoyance that’s becoming more and more prevalent. If you’re not familiar, the attack essentially uses other people’s systems to mine cryptocurrency, usually without their consent. When a cryptocurrency miner is running, your system will experience slowdowns and maybe crashes. The miner will eat up system resources, interfering with tasks like streaming video. SEE ALSO: Running Kodi on Amazon Fire TV or Fire TV Stick? You're at risk from cryptocurrency mining malware In response to this threat, TVAddons has released a new tool which protects Kodi users… [Continue Reading]

As you’ll know if you’re a frequent visitor to BetaNews, YouTuber Kamer Kaan Avdan has been creating some fantastic concept videos for various operating systems of the future, including Windows 11, iOS 12 and Android 9.0. Most recently though, it’s his modernizing of Windows 7, Windows XP and Windows 95 which have really caught people's attention. If you’ve watched any of his videos, and thought how cool it would be to actually run one of those operating systems, the bad news is they remain purely concepts for now. However, you can customize your existing OS with some wallpapers from his… [Continue Reading]

As technology evolves, it leaves behind a junkyard of products that are longer needed. Electric typewriters, dial-up modems, and floppy disks -- all once intrinsic parts of workaday life -- are now long-obsolete relics. Although we’re not quite there yet, it seems increasingly plausible that traditional antivirus software is likewise reaching its twilight years. Not convinced? Consider these statistics. As far back as 2014, Symantec’s Senior Vice President -- certainly not a person you’d expect to talk down antivirus software -- declared that antivirus was "dead" and effective against less than 50 percent of cyberattacks. More recently, detection rates of… [Continue Reading]

Google has unveiled a new look for users' accounts, making information clearer, improving transparency and adding new options. To make it easy to find information, Google has added a search function and there's also a cleaner look to aid navigation. Building on the previous update to Security Checkup, your Google account now also highlights settings you can change to improve your security. See also: Google launches Podcasts app for Android Google updates Android Messages so you can send texts from the web Google enters 'strategic partnership' with China's JD.com The rejigged look means that it is now easier than ever… [Continue Reading]

Brian Krzanich, the CEO of Intel, has resigned after it came to light that he was in a relationship with an employee. Shares in the company dropped 1.3 percent at the news. Although the relationship was entirely consensual, it was deemed to be a violation of Intel's non-fraternization policy which managers must abide by, and it has been brought to light in the context of the #MeToo movement. The current chief financial officer, Robert Swan, is to become interim CEO until a full-time replacement can be found. See also: CVE-2018-3665: Floating Point Lazy State Save/Restore vulnerability affects Intel chips Spectre… [Continue Reading]

Researchers at RiskIQ have uncovered a scam app that seeks to steal information and launches advert clicking to make money for the scammers. The app is advertised as a battery saver. The twist here is that though it will actually do what it says and cut battery use, it does a lot of nasty stuff too. "Many of the millions of scams we crawl at RiskIQ are relatively straightforward, but every once in a while we find something unique," say researchers Aaron Inness and Yonathan Klijnsma writing on the company's blog. "Usually, scams point to other web pages, but in… [Continue Reading]

Office 365's dominant share of the online business tools market has made it a popular target for cybercriminals launching phishing and malware attacks. To offer users extra protection, email security specialist Vade Secure is launching a new solution that's fully integrated into Office 365 and offers filtering powered by artificial intelligence. Vade Secure for Office 365 is closely aligned with Microsoft's partner-first, cloud-first strategy. It's built from the ground up with a cloud-native, API-based architecture, natively integrates with Office 365 and runs on Microsoft Azure. It blocks advanced attacks using machine learning models that perform real-time behavioral analysis of the… [Continue Reading]

An Amazon Prime membership is a great thing, especially if you take advantage of all of its offerings. The free 2-day shipping by itself makes it worthwhile for many, but the Prime Video streaming service puts it over the edge -- there are so many great movies and TV shows available, you could easily forgo Netflix to save money. Following Amazon's acquisition of Whole Foods, the membership can even get you discounts on groceries -- only in some areas of the country for now, however. There are even more perks, so ultimately, Amazon Prime is worth the cost, even after… [Continue Reading]

Seeking to strengthen its artificial intelligence arsenal, Microsoft has announced an agreement to acquire San Francisco-based AI startup Bonsai. Bonsai already had Microsoft links, having been set up back in 2014 by two former Microsoft engineers, Mark Hammond and Keen Browne. The company specializes in "deep reinforcement learning" which can be used to teach autonomous systems within simulations, and the company sees this tying in with Azure. See also: Gamers waiting for virtual reality on Xbox are out of luck Satya Nadella speaks out against 'cruel and abusive' border policy and explains Microsoft's involvement with ICE Microsoft issues statement distancing… [Continue Reading]

Backtracking on what it said last year, Microsoft has announced that it has no plans to bring either virtual reality or mixed reality experiences to its Xbox console. Back in March 2017, the company had said that it wanted to bring MR to Xbox users, but now it seems to have changed its mind. Microsoft has not really given any reason for the change of heart, but it has not given up completely on VR or MR. See also: Satya Nadella speaks out against 'cruel and abusive' border policy and explains Microsoft's involvement with ICE Microsoft issues statement distancing itself… [Continue Reading]

YouTube is a great video platform -- I have no complaints, really. With that said, I also enjoy watching content on Twitch. Ultimately, competition is a good thing, as it forces companies to innovate rather than stagnate. Today, yet another video service debuts, and it is backed by a major player in the social network space -- Instagram. Just how major is it? Today, Instagram announces it has achieved 1 billion users! To celebrate, the Facebook-owned photo site is launching a true video platform that goes beyond the short throwaway videos the service currently offers. Called "IGTV," it is aiming… [Continue Reading]

At its recent WWDC, Apple revealed the latest version of macOS -- Mojave. The OS update introduces a number of new features, including a dark theme and desktop Stacks. One of the more interesting additions is Dynamic Desktop which cleverly cycles through a set of 16 images of the desert taken at different times of the day. If you like the idea of this, but are on Windows 10, the good news is it’s now possible to get the feature on your OS, and for free. SEE ALSO: Apple introduces macOS Mojave with Dark Mode, desktop Stacks and more Windows… [Continue Reading]

Global financial services organizations are targeted by sophisticated cyber attackers in an attempt to steal critical data, according to a new report. The study from threat hunting company Vectra says attackers build 'hidden tunnels' masquerading as other web traffic to break into networks and access critical data and personal information. These tunnels are used to remotely control an attack and steal data while remaining largely undetected. The report shows that while financial services firms didn't experience the same volume of breaches as other industries, they still face considerable risk as lucrative targets of attackers in search of a windfall. "Every… [Continue Reading]

UK households are home to thousands of pounds' worth of broken gadgets, according to new research from technology retailer Laptops Direct. The survey of more than 1,000 UK adults shows that the average household is currently harboring £2,460 of broken technology and gadgets. Smartphones are the most common items in these technology graveyards with 78 percent holding onto them even though they’re broken. A damaged or malfunctioning laptop is in the home of 62 percent of those surveyed and 59 percent have broken iPads and tablets. There's also a lack of urgency when it comes to getting gadgets fixed. 37… [Continue Reading]

Not content with infiltrating people's homes with its range of Echo devices, Amazon is now looking to elbow its way into hotels with Alexa for Hospitality. Amazon has struck a deal with Marriott International that will see the introduction of Echo devices into rooms. Guests can use these to play music, contact reception and get information about the hotel -- and both Amazon and guests alike will be hoping there won't be a repeat of the recent privacy slip up that resulted in an Echo recording and sharing someone's conversations. See also: Amazon Echo secretly records couple's conversation... and then… [Continue Reading]

A new survey of IT professionals finds that automating endpoint detection and response processes is a top priority. The study from cyber security training company, the SANS Institute, shows 42 percent of the IT professionals surveyed say their endpoints had been breached, and 82 percent of that group say their breaches involved desktops, while 69 percent cited corporate laptops and 42 percent claimed involvement of employee-owned laptops (42 percent). The top threat vectors for these exploited endpoints were web drive-bys (63 percent), social engineering/phishing (53 percent) and ransomware (50 percent). But while respondents are relying on the security capabilities they… [Continue Reading]

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has publicly shared an email he sent to employees, in which he speaks out against current US immigration policy. Describing the separating of children from their families as "cruel and abusive", he stresses that while Microsoft does work with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the work amounts to support for "legacy" services and is in no way related to child separation. The president of Microsoft, Brad Smith, also used a blog post to set out the company position on the matter. See also: Microsoft issues statement distancing itself from ICE's separation of children from parents… [Continue Reading]

Growing up in the 80s and 90s, I remember video games being considered a "boy thing." This was just marketing -- of course girls liked gaming too. Sadly, games that were designed for girls were often terrible. It seemed like developers thought they could use, say, Barbie as a way to sell garbage games to this particular demographic. The truth is, girls enjoyed playing the same games as boys -- Super Mario Brothers, Street Fighter, etc. Ultimately, there was no need to market games based on the player's gender. These days, the old stereotypes are largely gone, though not entirely.… [Continue Reading]

Google has never really shown much interest in podcasts -- despite their age and popularity -- but today this changes. The company has launched a new Android app called simply Google Podcasts complete with ubiquitous AI for personalized suggestions. Available in 47 languages, the app currently provides access to a collection of around two million podcasts, but this number is likely to grow very quickly. Google boasts of integration with Google Assistant and Google Home, the main benefit of which is being able to start a podcast on one device and continue on another. See also: Google updates Android Messages… [Continue Reading]

Apple has been hit with an AUS $9 million ($6.7 million) fine for misleading customers in Australia. More than two years ago Apple started to "brick" iPhones that had been fixed at non-authorized third-party repairers, generating an Error 53. Apple admitted to intentionally preventing certain repaired iPhones and iPads from working for security reasons, but later apologized and issued a fix. However, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) sued Apple for "misleading or deceptive conduct", and now an Australian court has hit the iPhone-maker with a multi-million dollar fine See also: Australia sues Apple over iPhones bricked by Error… [Continue Reading]

Over the past decade, DevOps techniques have helped to transform software development teams with a new and more agile approach. But now companies are starting to move beyond the standard DevOps approach in what is being called 'Day 2' DevOps, a world that emphasizes scalability and teamwork. In such environments, development teams shift one way, operations teams shift the other and together they can deliver and manage multiple, complex applications at the same time. In order to meet the challenges of Day 2 DevOps, IBM is making two new announcements -- IBM UrbanCode Deploy 7.0 and IBM UrbanCode Velocity 1.0.… [Continue Reading]

Website attacks increased 14 percent in the first quarter of 2018 compared to the final quarter of 2017 as cybercriminals set their sights on independent websites and small businesses. Figures from website security specialist SiteLock show that one percent of sampled sites are infected at any one time. This may not sound much, but it means 18.7 million sites are infected. While attacks on big business typically make the headlines, smaller companies shouldn't believe that they're too small to be hacked. In fact smaller companies are often the target of choice for cybercriminals thanks to lower levels of protection. Malicious… [Continue Reading]

When it comes to Wi-Fi, we are living in very exciting times. It used to be that the majority of homes -- regardless of size -- had one router. Then, depending on needs, people would piecemeal various range extenders and repeaters that would maybe work well. Worst of all, routers of yesteryear were not only slow, but woefully unreliable -- they often required rebooting. I recall TV show South Park once had a joke where the entire internet was fixed by unplugging the power from a giant router and then plugging it in again. These days, however, many routers are… [Continue Reading]

ZTE has had a tough time of things in the US, having been slapped with a Denial Order that forced it to close its main operations. Despite the sanctions, President Trump expressed a desire to get the company back up and running, implementing a huge fine which ZTE agreed to pay in order to be allowed to operate in the US again. But in a blow to the Trump administration and its work with Chinese president Xi Jinping, the Senate has voted to amend the National Defense Authorization Act to reinstate sanctions on the company. See also: ZTE agrees to… [Continue Reading]

The separating of children from parents at the US southern border has created international outrage -- and lots of rhetoric from President Trump on Twitter. When Microsoft removed from its website a reference to working with ICE, the company found itself pulled into the political debate. A blog post from January this year saw Microsoft stating it was "proud" to be working with ICE. When this was spotted, people took to social media to call out Microsoft, making references to the child separation policy; shortly afterwards, the ICE reference was deleted. Now it is back, and Microsoft has issued a… [Continue Reading]

Google is rolling out a series of changes to Android Messages, one of which makes it possible to send text messages from the comfort of your computer. Called "Messages for web" the feature enables users to use a desktop web browser to send SMSes rather than their phone. While this is almost certainly the biggest and most exciting changes for Messages, Google is also pushing a number of other new features to the app, including Smart Replies, GIF search and link previews. See also: Google enters 'strategic partnership' with China's JD.com Android emulator Andy OS seems to be secretly installing… [Continue Reading]

Windows 10 is a very good operating system, but despite Microsoft initially offering it as a free upgrade, many users were reluctant to switch from Windows 7, and it’s easy to understand why. A lot of Windows 10’s big changes -- the Microsoft Store, bundled third-party apps, live tiles in the Start menu, Cortana, Bing integration, and so on -- simply weren't that appealing to users of previous versions of Windows. Windows 7 still offers everything that most people would want from an OS, but nearly a decade on from its debut, it now looks and feels quite dated compared… [Continue Reading]

Almost four years after the last major release, German developer Ashampoo has unveiled Photo Optimizer 7 for PCs running Windows 7 or later. The commercial tool offers a variety of quick and easy fixes, including various one-click optimizations tools. Highlights include a complete user interface redesign -- including new dark theme look to accompany the growing number of apps sporting the eye-friendly look, "greatly improved" optimization tools and various other tweaks and improvements. Version 6, which was followed by a cut-down free version (Ashampoo Photo Optimizer 2016, no longer available), opened with the promise of better one-click optimization, and Photo… [Continue Reading]

Some people are worried about the prospects of robots taking over their jobs, but there are some tasks around the home that you would relish a robot doing for you -- such as vacuuming. Robot vacuum cleaners are fantastic time-saving gadgets, and thanks to Wellbots you can win a Neato Botvac D7 Connected Robot Vacuum for your home as part of BetaNews' ongoing 20th birthday giveaway celebrations. SEE ALSO: #BetaNews20 Giveaway: Meural Canvas Wi-Fi enabled digital art frame from Wellbots #BetaNews20 Giveaway: Linksys WRT32XB AC3200 Xbox One wireless gaming router #BetaNews20 Giveaway: HyperX Cloud Alpha gaming headset for PC, Xbox,… [Continue Reading]

Microsoft has acquired Flipgrid, a social video discussion platform used in classrooms around the world. The acquisition strengthens Microsoft's educational offerings and helps it to better compete with rivals Google and Apple. Flipgrid is used by million of students and teachers to collaborate on lessons, covering everything from Pre-K to PhD level. The acquisition is great news for schools: Microsoft is slashing the current price tag of $1,000, and making the service free just like Office 365 for Education. See also: Microsoft to stop offering support for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 in forums Microsoft wants you to know Windows… [Continue Reading]

As the FIFA World Cup tournament enters its second week, cybercriminals are using a phishing campaign to trick fans into opening an infected attachment. Emails identified by Check Point attempt to lure would-be victims into downloading a schedule of fixtures and a result tracker, but doing so will prove to be an own goal. When opened, the attachment uses a malware variant called 'DownloaderGuide,' a known downloader of potentially unwanted programs (PUPs) that is most commonly used as an installer for applications like toolbars, adware or system optimizers. Check Point researchers have found that in total the campaign includes nine… [Continue Reading]

Apple has announced that with iOS 12, iPhone users in the US will be able to automatically share their location with first responders when they make 911 calls. Building on its currently-used location technology, Apple says that it will start to use RapidSOS's Internet Protocol-based data pipeline to quickly and securely share HELO (Hybridized Emergency Location) data with 911 centers. See also: Apple is updating iOS to lock out police iPhone hacking tools Apple reveals performance-focused iOS 12 for a massive range of iPhones and iPads Apple updates App Store rules to prevent devs gathering data from contacts The company… [Continue Reading]

Cryptocurrency mining malware has become a serious problem recently, and it seems the latest people to fall victim to the threat are users of the Android emulator Andy OS -- also referred to as AndY and Andyroid. The emulator makes it possible to run Android software within Windows or macOS, but it appears that the installation harbors a dark secret -- a GPU miner trojan that secretly mines for Bitcoin. Over on Reddit there are large numbers of upset users trying to find out what's going on. See also: Bitcoin plummets after hackers steal $37 million from South Korean cryptocurrency… [Continue Reading]

A new survey of 2,000 UK adults reveals that almost three quarters worry that their details will be stolen every time they hand over bank details and email addresses to companies. What’s more around one in five have already had their data stolen according to the study commissioned by BullGuard, and almost a third of these had been out of pocket as a result. "As the results show, the way companies use data really is a huge concern for customers," says Paul Lipman, CEO at BullGuard. "This has particular relevance in the wake of the Dixons Carphone hack in which… [Continue Reading]

Google is deepening it drive into China, and now the search giant has announced a $550 million "strategic partnership" with Chinese ecommerce goliath JD.com. This is far from being Google's first venture in China, but the major investment shows the company's eagerness to take advantage of the market. It will enable Google to better take on the likes of Amazon in Asia, and it will also help JD.com to expand its operations to other parts of the world. See also: Kaspersky: Chinese hackers LuckyMouse hit national data center Facebook confirms data-sharing agreement with Chinese companies including Huawei Apple removes apps… [Continue Reading]

deepin Linux is controversial because its developers are in China. You see, some people are suspicious of a Linux distribution that comes from that country. If you feel that way, that's your business. But you know what? I am personally sick and tired of such xenophobia these days. Let's not forget, many goods come from China -- including personal computers and associated components. Not to mention, the OS is largely open source. Controversy aside, deepin is a great operating system for both Linux beginners and experts alike. Not only is it stable thanks to its Debian base, but it has… [Continue Reading]

Computer scientists from the University of California, the College of William and Mary, and Binghamton University have published a paper detailing a new "design principle" that avoids speculative execution vulnerabilities. Researchers says that the SafeSpec model supports "speculation in a way that is immune to the sidechannel leakage necessary for attacks such as Meltdown and Spectre". Importantly, the design also avoids the problems associated with other Meltdown/Spectre fixes. See also: CVE-2018-3665: Floating Point Lazy State Save/Restore vulnerability affects Intel chips Spectre and Meltdown variant 4: Microsoft, Google and Intel reveal new Speculative Store Bypass chip vulnerability Intel: some processors will… [Continue Reading]

Kaspersky Lab has published a report in which it reveals that a Chinese hacking group has attacked the national data center of an unnamed Central Asian country. The cyberattacks are said to have been carried out by a group known as LuckyMouse -- but also goes by the names Iron Tiger, Threat Group-3390, EmissaryPanda and APT27. The attacks started in 2017, and Kaspersky says that malicious scrips were injected into official website to conduct country-level waterholing campaign. See also: Apple is updating iOS to lock out police iPhone hacking tools Bitcoin plummets after hackers steal $37 million from South Korean… [Continue Reading]

When you are a Linux desktop user, it can be very frustrating when popular programs are not available for your platform. The same can be said for macOS, but to a lesser extent -- at least it has access to things like Microsoft Office and Adobe Photoshop. Like it or not, Windows often gets premium programs as an exclusive. It's not hard to see why -- on the desktop, Microsoft's operating system reigns supreme from a marketshare perspective. Developers will simply follow the money, and who can blame them? The world is changing, however, and Microsoft's stranglehold on the software… [Continue Reading]

Two-hundred-and-eighty-seven in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps, games and extensions released for Windows 10 on the Windows Store in the past seven days. As always, if I've missed an app or game that has been released this week that you believe is particularly good, let me know in the comments below or notify me via email. Discounts this week The following list is a selection of the best deals. Make sure you check out the Store for all offers. Some apps are discounted for more than one week. Only new apps and games are… [Continue Reading]

Google has published the latest edition of its diversity report in which the company highlights the makeup of its workforce in the name of transparency. Despite Google's seemingly endless claims that it wants to do more to improve diversity, the report shows that little has changed over the last year. Women still account for less than a third of the workforce, and the company has a high attrition rate for black employees. See also: Google revamps Ad Settings and 'Why this ad?' so you can see and control how ads are personalized Google doubles down on Chrome extension security by… [Continue Reading]

The World Cup is now officially under way in Russia to the delight of sports fans around the globe. If you just can't get enough football, Facebook Messenger can help to satiate you between matches with a series of mini games you can play with your friends. Games in Facebook Messenger have been with us for some time, and the social network has used the World Cup as a reason to update the selection. In addition, there are also new camera filters in the app -- here's how you access them and the games. See also: Privacy: Facebook advertisers must… [Continue Reading]

Windows 10 has long had a reputation for being a rather problematic operating system. Part of this is down to early versions famously spying on users, and Microsoft shoving it onto systems against the owners' wishes didn’t help either. Rolling out major feature updates twice a year has led to numerous complaints and problems as well, with one of our most searched-for articles here being how to rollback an update. SEE ALSO: Microsoft using AI and Machine Learning to manage the Windows 10 April 2018 Update rollout How to rollback and uninstall the Windows 10 April 2018 Update In a… [Continue Reading]

As recently noted by AdDuplex, the Windows 10 1803 rollout is progressing much more smoothly than all previous feature updates. AdDuplex’s figures suggest over 50 percent of Windows 10 users have already been offered the update, while Microsoft’s own numbers say 250 million machines have it. With close to 700 million Windows 10 systems, that’s just over 35 percent. It’s certainly been a huge improvement over the famously slow and problematic Creators Update last year, and part of the reason this rollout has been so successful is down to Microsoft’s use of AI and Machine Learning. SEE ALSO: Microsoft releases… [Continue Reading]

Tomorrow is the GIF's 31st anniversary -- exciting, right? Those animated images have truly changed the world. All kidding aside, it is pretty amazing that the file format came to be way back in 1987! To celebrate tomorrow's milestone, Google releases a new open source tool today. Called "GIF for CLI," it can convert a Graphics Interchange Format image into ASCII art for terminal. You can see such an example in the image above. "Just in time for the 31st anniversary of the GIF, GIF for CLI is available today on GitHub. GIF for CLI takes in a GIF, short… [Continue Reading]

With the Windows April 2018 Update now available to all, it’s full steam ahead for Microsoft on the next big feature update, codenamed Redstone 5. New builds are arriving on a weekly basis, and today sees the rollout of Build 17692 for Insiders on the Fast and Skip Ahead rings. SEE ALSO: Would you swap Windows 10 for Windows 95 -- 2018 Edition? In this new build SwiftKey will now power the typing experience when using the touch keyboard. It currently supports English (United States), English (United Kingdom), French (France), German (Germany), Italian (Italy), Spanish (Spain), Portuguese (Brazil), and Russian… [Continue Reading]

Google has given its Ad Settings page an overhaul in the name of transparency. The page gives people the chance to not only see how Google uses the data it has gathered about them to personalize the ads they see, but also exercise a degree of control over these personalized ads. The page makes it possible to disable ad targeting, so you will see rather more generic ads if tailored advertising concerns you. The company has also updated its "Why this ad?" feature, so you will be able to determine why you are seeing certain Google-supplied ads on the sites… [Continue Reading]

When people say Chromebooks are glorified web browsers, do not listen to them. Haters are going to hate, but the truth is, laptops running Google's Linux-based Chrome OS are highly capable. In fact, the vast majority of home users would be perfectly fine forgoing Windows and choosing a Chromebook instead. Heck, even many businesses would find Chrome OS to be a delight. Today, Samsung announces its latest such laptop -- the premium, yet affordable, Chromebook Plus (V2). This is a refresh of the first-gen "Plus" model. It can run Android apps and doubles as a convertible tablet, making it very… [Continue Reading]

Although many businesses have begun moving to DevOps-style processes, eight out of 10 respondents to a new survey say they still have separate teams for managing infrastructure/operations and development. The study by managed cloud specialist 2nd Watch of more than 1,000 IT professionals indicates that a majority of companies have yet to fully commit to the DevOps process. 78 percent of respondents say that separate teams are still managing infrastructure/operations and application development. Some organizations surveyed are using infrastructure-as-code tools, automation or even CI/CD pipelines, but those techniques alone do not define DevOps. Nearly 60 percent say they are using… [Continue Reading]

People are worried about their personal security. Who do you trust? Facebook recently admitted it tracks just about everything you do whilst using its network, whereas one of the biggest technology companies in the UK, Dixons Carphone, announced a huge data loss. You have to ask yourself, if a technology company can’t safeguard your data, who can you trust? On top, do you trust your web browser? What’s it storing, what information does it pass to the manufacturer and to the website you are browsing? With this in mind, Cliqz decided it can do this all much better. The German… [Continue Reading]

In-browser mining triggered revolutionary changes in the cryptocurrency ecosystem. It used to be that the routine of spawning new virtual coins was isolated to computers running specially crafted software. Tools like the Coinhive JavaScript miner have added the website layer to the mix. Ideally, it means webmasters can embed such a script in their sites and thus siphon off the processing power of visiting PCs in the background to earn Monero (XMR), Electroneum or other form of cryptocurrency. This is a legit tactic as long as people are properly notified of it. Just like any popular technology, this one got… [Continue Reading]

Apple says that it is planning to release an iOS update that will block a loophole used by police to access iPhones. Law enforcement agencies and hackers have been able to exploit a handset's Lightning port to get around passcode limits and brute force their way into a phone. But with the upcoming update, Apple will shut down data access via the Lightning port after an hour if the correct passcode is not entered. See also: Apple updates App Store rules to prevent devs gathering data from contacts Apple slaps a ban on cryptocurrency mining apps Apple adopts a 'cautious… [Continue Reading]

There has been something of a spate of chip vulnerability discoveries recently, and now another one has emerged. Known as Floating Point Lazy State Save/Restore, the security flaw (CVE-2018-3665) is found in Intel Core and Xeon processors and it is another speculative execution vulnerability in a similar vein to Spectre. The security flaw takes advantage of one of the ways the Linux kernel saves and restores the state of the Floating Point Unit (FPU) when switching tasks -- specifically the Lazy FPU Restore scheme. Malware or malicious users can take advantage of the vulnerability to grab encryption keys. Linux kernel… [Continue Reading]

Here at BetaNews, our 20th birthday cerebration is in full swing. We have several amazing giveaways running, including the Linksys Velop Dual-Band Whole Home Mesh Wi-Fi System. But what if you don't need or want a mesh networking solution? What if you are a gamer that just wants a single router? Enter the Linksys WRT32XB. Yes, we are giving away this hardcore Xbox One-optimized gaming router. Don't own Microsoft's gaming console? Don't worry. It will still function perfectly fine as a router for all of your non-gaming needs too. In other words, Xbox or not, you should enter the giveaway, as this… [Continue Reading]

Protecting customer data should always be a top priority for businesses. But doing so is increasingly extending beyond moral responsibility and taking on the form of legal requirement. As you’ve surely heard, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) took effect May 25. This set of regulations, which replaces the Data Protection Act 1998, legislates online data rights for any organization that sells products or services to European Union (EU) customers. Complying with these new rules might seem daunting (and even unnecessary) for US-based small businesses, particularly since there’s still a lot of confusion regarding the specifics of these new rules… [Continue Reading]

GDPR -- it’s a nightmare for organizations, but a much-needed protection for citizens in our world of Cambridge Analytica, criminal hackers, and nation-states cyberthreats. There are many aspects of the regulation that are extremely tricky to implement, but let’s consider just one. Imagine the following scenario: A new customer signs up to your eCommerce website. Their data gets moved into several back-end systems; maybe a CRM, an accounts system, an order management system, marketing, and probably some kind of data science workbench. Sometime later, an analyst is tasked with analyzing new customers and their behaviors, their retention rates, and other… [Continue Reading]

Protecting your personal information has made big headlines in 2018, and will continue to do so as hackers continue to outwit even the biggest firms. This is what makes our new software giveaway so essential: a year’s license for Sticky Password Premium. Sticky Password is a suite of products for mobile and desktop that allow you to store your online passwords, form fills and credit card information securely -- our giveaway will give you access to all its Premium features across all supported devices, including Windows, Mac, iOS and Android. The most effective way of protecting yourself online -- and… [Continue Reading]

Whenever there is a tragic event, such as a natural disaster or large-scale terrorist attack, people turn out in droves to donate blood. This is very noble, but such a donation is not only needed during publicized tragedies. Every day, hospitals around the world use donated blood to save lives. Each year, we celebrate World Blood Donor Day -- an annual occasion to raise awareness regarding the necessity of this life-changing donation. On this day, people often want to donate, but it can be hard to know where to go. Thankfully, Google is partnering with The American Red Cross to make… [Continue Reading]

With the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in effect, and Brexit negations in full swing, there is tremendous debate about London’s new place in the world economy. However, even in a post-Brexit and GDPR world, London is a resilient city with a 400-year history at the center of trade and finance. In 1998, my company, Interxion,strategically chose central London as the location of its first data center. Twenty years later, we continue to invest in this city with the launch of our third data center, opening in July. So what makes London such an attractive connectivity hub for businesses all… [Continue Reading]

From retail to manufacturing, the digital transformation is taking the world by storm, and mobile is leading the charge. With mobile affecting everything from corporate processes to the customer experience, it’s important for businesses to understand just how mobile and the digital revolution are bringing big changes. As productivity increases, so does the need to communicate more quickly. Currently, it takes 50 milliseconds to send a piece of data from one mobile device to another. Impressively, with 5G, that time will be cut to just one millisecond -- now, that’s fast. While operators are projected to spend $1.7 trillion on… [Continue Reading]

The fall out from the Cambridge Analytica scandal continues for Facebook, and the social media giant is busy trying to repair its somewhat tattered reputation. The latest measures see the company introducing new privacy safeguards to inform users if advertisers are using information supplied by so-called "data brokers". These brokers are firms that gather data about people and then sell this information on to other companies, often for the purposes of targeted advertising. Facebook is not banning the practice, merely requiring advertisers to keep users informed. See also: Facebook bug makes millions of users' private posts public Facebook confirms data-sharing… [Continue Reading]

Apple has tweaked its App Store policies, closing a loophole that made it possible for developers to gather data from phone contacts and then sell or share that data without consent. Until very recently app developers have been able to ask for permission to access users' address books and then use this permission to gather data about contacts. But with the latest policy change -- introduced with no announcement -- Apple has clamped down on this practice in the name of privacy. See also: Apple slaps a ban on cryptocurrency mining apps Apple adopts a 'cautious approach' and cuts iPhone… [Continue Reading]

Microsoft has announced that it's giving its flagship Office suite a makeover designed to deliver a balance of 'power and simplicity'. The updates apply to Office.com and Office 365 and will be rolled out over the next few months, the company says it will 'test and learn' as it goes -- those of a cynical mind might see that as code for letting users find the bugs. The changes are based on a 'Three Cs' -- customers, context and control -- principle, designed to focus on the features people use most and making it easier to access them. "Office is… [Continue Reading]

Rumors are swirling that it won’t be long before people could talk to their smart speakers to control aspects of their Xbox One systems. Details are scarce, but here’s what’s known so far. Microsoft formerly offered voice control functionality for Xbox players through its Kinect accessory. But, once the company discontinued it in 2017, and then quit making Xbox One adapters for the Kinect shortly afterward, gamers became more limited. The Xbox One does have Cortana, but the availability of features that work with Alexa and the Google Assistant could help players do even more with their systems. No News… [Continue Reading]

Traditional Hadoop-style big data is giving way to cloud and container solutions like Docker, according to the results of a new survey. The State of Data Science survey, carried out by Python data science platform Anaconda, among over 4,000 of its users, shows that Docker now makes up 19 percent of data science platforms, beating Hadoop/Spark with 15 percent and Kubernetes at 5.8 percent. This is partly due to the fact that what was 'big data' in 2005, when Hadoop began, now easily fits into a single server's memory and there is now a wide range of alternatives to building… [Continue Reading]

Ransomware is a very real threat that targets businesses of all sizes and industries. Really any business can be a target. With that being said financial institutions and retail are most at risk given the transactional nature of their business and the number of people that may have access to a terminal or computer at any given point in time. The first thing that an organization needs to do is recognize that they are a target for ransomware just like any other company. Next, they need to ensure that they have the proper tools anti-virus/anti-malware installed on all computer systems to detect… [Continue Reading]

The rise of fake news has affected many people's faith in the internet as a reliable source. In order to help with the problem, Adblock Plus maker eyeo is launching a new browser extension called Trusted News. Available free for Chrome browsers, the extension works by checking domains, websites, and news sources against the world's largest network of fact-checking databases. After installing the Trusted News extension, users can navigate to websites as usual but they will now notice a green check-mark or other flags on the extension indicating the nature of the sources used by that site. Besides a green… [Continue Reading]

Windows 95 was never much to look at, with its predominately grey, boxy design, but two decades ago it was revolutionary, introducing Windows users to the concept of a Start menu and taskbar for the first time, as well as rudimentary plug-and-play support. Truth be told, it was never the greatest of operating systems (Windows 98 and XP both improved significantly on the foundations it laid down) but if it had a modern makeover, could we forgive its shortcomings? Feast your eyes on Windows 95 -- 2018 Edition, and decide for yourself. SEE ALSO: Windows XP 2018 Edition is the… [Continue Reading]

As part of London Tech Week, 1,600 new jobs and billions of pounds of investment into the UK economy have been announced at an event hosted by Prime Minister Theresa May in Downing Street. Private sector funding comes from companies including Salesforce, which is investing £1.9bn in the UK over the next five years, this will include the opening of its second UK data center in 2019. Mubadala is launching a £300m European investment fund based in the UK, and NTT data is investing £41m to open a new office and Innovation Centre, creating up to 200 jobs over the… [Continue Reading]

Google is improving the offline translation skills of Google Translate with an injection of AI in the form of neural machine translation (NMT). The use of on-device AI helps to dramatically improve the quality of offline translations, and works in much the same as online translations do. The use of neural machine translation helps to improve accuracy by looking at complete sentences, rather than translating word by word. See also: Google doubles down on Chrome extension security by blocking inline installations Google Home can now handle up to three queries at a time Google says it will continue to work… [Continue Reading]

Although a large majority of parents (95 percent) say they’re concerned about the risks online gaming poses, they admit to allowing games to entertain their offspring. A new study by McAfee finds 92 percent of parents allow their children to play at least one hour of video games every day, with eight percent admitting that they allow their children to play more than five hours a day. On average, children play video games for 2.13 hours a day or nearly 15 hours a week. More concerning is that 62 percent of children play games where they directly interact with other… [Continue Reading]

Another week, another cyberattack. This time around, it's the Dixons Carphone group which says it has fallen victim to not one but two major breaches. The bank card details of 5.9 million customers have been accessed by hackers in the first breach. In the second, the personal records of 1.2 million people have been exposed. Dixons Carphone says that it is investigating an attack on its card processing system at Currys PC World and Dixons Travel in which there was an attempt to compromise 5.9 million cards. The company stressed that the vast majority -- 5.8 million -- of these… [Continue Reading]

At the moment there are a couple of ways to install Chrome extensions -- either via the Chrome Web Store as Google would prefer, or via an inline installation from any website. Aware that this latter option opens up the possibility of people installing malicious extensions, Google is clamping down. Starting today, all newly-published extensions can only be installed via the Chrome Web Store, and this restriction will extend to existing extensions over the remainder of the year. See also: Google Home can now handle up to three queries at a time Google says it will continue to work with… [Continue Reading]

Solid state drives keep dropping in price, but unfortunately, they are still too expensive for many consumers. This is a shame, as moving from an HDD to an SSD can provide a huge performance boost. Heck, in some cases, it can make your aging PC feel like a brand-new computer! NVMe variants in particular are blazing fast. Toshiba is aiming to make NVMe solid state drives more affordable with the launch of its latest such product. Called "RC100," it is available in three capacities -- 120GB, 240GB, and 480GB. "While the performance advantages of first-generation NVMe drives are well known, this… [Continue Reading]

Coinbase is one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, so when it announces plans to support a new player the news is bound to have a major impact on the market. The result is always the same: a massive buying spree, which can lead to coins posting double-digit gains in a matter of hours. This was also the case for Ethereum Classic, which will be listed on Coinbase in the coming months. The exchange says that it will be included first on Coinbase Custody, which is where customers will be able to make deposits and withdrawals. It will… [Continue Reading]

With there being a number of digital assistants to choose from, each is now focusing on becoming smarter than the competition. To this end, Google Home can now respond to strings of up to three commands at once. The "multiple queries" feature is currently available in English for USA, UK, Canada and Australia, and enables Google Home users to perform up to three functions with a single utterance. Users, however, seem a little confused about how it all works. See also: Google says it will continue to work with the military on AI, but won't get involved in weapons or… [Continue Reading]

If you are a PC gamer and you don't have a mechanical keyboard, it's time to upgrade. Not only are these models often more accurate, but some offer tactile and/or audible feedback which could improve your gaming performance. When you aren't playing games, they work brilliantly for typing too. Today, Logitech officially unveils an all-new proprietary mechanical keyboard switch called "GX Blue." This option will provide both tactile and audible feedback. It will be available on two keyboard models -- the all-new G512 (which Logitech announces today), and the existing G513. Don't like audible feedback? Don't worry -- the new… [Continue Reading]

According to a new report, 74 percent of respondents believe DevOps enablement capabilities are essential, very important, or important for their organization. Yet only 33 percent believe their organization has the ability to deliver those capabilities. This is according to research carried out by the Ponemon Institute and sponsored by digital business specialist Embotics, which analyzed the results of a survey of more than 600 individuals responsible for cloud management at organizations with an average budget of $147 million for managing hybrid cloud operations. A sizeable 46 percent of respondents say that their organization's cloud consumption model is 'cloud direct,'… [Continue Reading]

Historically, infrastructure systems and operational technology (OT) were designed to work in isolation from IT. But in the modern world these environments are increasingly converged and that can open up new attack routes. Cyber exposure specialist Tenable is launching a new solution to manage Cyber Exposure holistically across IT and OT systems. This is based on enhancements to the Tenable.io platform and Industrial Security, an asset discovery and vulnerability detection solution for OT systems, delivered in partnership with Siemens. Features include smart scanning which builds an intelligence layer on top of active scanning and passive network monitoring to assess IT… [Continue Reading]

New research commissioned by cloud-native analytics platform Sumo Logic from 451 Research, reveals that the degree to which non-IT roles and functions are using machine data analytics for business value is growing faster than anticipated. The findings show the more software-centric a company is, the more likely it is to have 100+ people who use machine data analytics at least once a week, indicating that these companies are recognizing the value of machine data analytics. These businesses are also more likely to have line-of-business users integrating machine data with data from BI tools, to gain the visibility they need to… [Continue Reading]

Amazon’s Fire TV products are very popular with Kodi users, because it’s easy to install the media center software on it, along with any streaming add-ons. Users of Kodi boxes are used to hearing of potential dangers -- some threats of which need to be taken with a pinch of salt -- but there’s a new malware variant that’s infecting Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick devices globally, and which could well be on your device now. SEE ALSO: Google views Kodi as a piracy tool, makes it harder to search for How to install and use the fantastic… [Continue Reading]

A new study shows that 87 percent of IT Decision Makers (ITDMs) limit their use of the cloud because of the complexity of managing regulatory compliance. According to the research by WinMagic, which spoke to ITDMs in Germany, India, the UK and US, 24 percent say this means they only work with a single cloud vendor in their infrastructure, rather than exploit the benefits of a multi-cloud environment. Among other findings are that 63 percent feel the need to use multiple infrastructure management tools is a hugely restricting factor in their use of multiple cloud vendors. Looking specifically at managing… [Continue Reading]

Apple has updated its developer guidelines, making it clear that apps that overtly or covertly mine for cryptocurrencies are simply not welcome in the App Store. The clamp down covers iOS devices, and it has only recently been introduced. The ban means that iPhones and iPads cannot be used to mine for cryptocurrencies, unless the processing is carried out in the cloud. It's not clear how big a problem mining apps have been, and iOS hardware would seem rather underpowered for the task. See also: Apple adopts a 'cautious approach' and cuts iPhone parts orders by 20 percent Apple reveals… [Continue Reading]

It’s fair to say Windows 10 hasn’t had the smoothest of rides. Users were slow to adopt it, and Microsoft’s response to this -- forcing the OS on to users against their will -- didn’t go down at all well. As you’d expect. Windows 10 is now a pretty good operating system, and offers a number of welcome features, but it’s not without its problems, as consumer champion Which? has found. Back in 2016, Which? criticized Microsoft for its hard sell approach to Windows 10 and then for its poor customer support. In a new follow up piece, the charity… [Continue Reading]

Reporters covering the historic meeting between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Un in Singapore have been given a gift bag that has security experts concerned. In addition to bottled water and a local guidebook, the gift bag also contained a USB fan. While on the face of it this would seem to offer a way to combat the Singaporean heat, the fan also sparked warnings that it could be laced with malware. See also: Trump to hit ZTE with $1.3 billion fine before it can operate in the US again Judge: President Trump blocking people on Twitter is unconstitutional Trump says… [Continue Reading]

As the world increasingly turns to mobile devices to access the internet and conduct business, so firms are eager to put out their own apps. But new research from security ratings company BitSight reveals that many companies may be rushing out apps that have vulnerabilities which could lead to data leakage, privilege abuse, unencrypted personally identifiable information (PII), and credential theft. BitSight examined representative samples of more than 1,000 companies in five industry sectors that offer mobile applications on iOS and Android. It found over half of the companies studied in the media and entertainment industry offer risky mobile applications.… [Continue Reading]

Google is all about data. Yes, the company has the ability to track individuals using the information it collects, but more importantly, it can analyze on a more macro level, discovering global trends. Heck, Google has the potential to change the world by properly leveraging its collected data. Today, Google is sharing some search trends that, while fun, are not at all world-changing. Actually, they are bordering on silly, but that's OK. What are they? Dad-related trends to celebrate the upcoming Father's Day which is this Sunday! ALSO READ: Google is very proud of LGBTQ YouTube creators, launches #ProudToCreate hashtag "Everything… [Continue Reading]

A new feature is rolling out to Snapchat users around the world, making it possible to delete messages you send and then change your mind about. It's something that users have been asking for for some time, but the update will not allow for stealthy message deletion -- to the disappointment of some. See also: Oath is killing off Yahoo Messenger on July 17 Facebook copies Snapchat's Bitmoji and creates personal, customizable Avatars GIPHY removed from Snapchat and Instagram after racist GIF appears Clear Chats can be used to delete messages that have been sent in both group chats, and… [Continue Reading]

EE has announced the launch of a new smart number technology which enables its customers to use their phone number across multiple devices at no extra cost. Initially, the service will be available to Apple users, giving them the option of using their iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch or Mac -- up to five devices in total -- to send and receive text messages, and place and receive phone calls. The same options will make their way to Android devices at some point in the future. You'll need to have your main EE number associated with a compatible iPhone (iPhone 6/6… [Continue Reading]

Bitcoin has once again demonstrated its volatility, dropping in value by 10 percent following news of an attack and theft from the South Korean exchange Coinrail. Coinrail has confirmed that it suffered a "cyber intrusion" and while it did not specify the value of the coins stolen, local news outlet Yonhap News estimated it to be $37.28 million based on a loss of about 30 percent of the coins traded on the exchange. See also: Ticketfly says hack exposed private data of 27 million accounts 71 percent of IT pros believe they can hack any organization 92 million user accounts… [Continue Reading]

Microsoft has announced that starting next month it will no longer be participating in the technical support forums for Windows 7, 8.1, 8.1 RT and numerous other products. On the software front, the company says that it will also no longer provide support for Microsoft Security Essentials, Internet Explorer 10, Office 2010 and 2013 as of July. It is not just software that is affected. Microsoft is also stopping support for Surface Pro, Surface Pro 2, Surface RT, Surface 2, Microsoft Band and Zune. Some forums will be locked, preventing users from helping each other as well. See also: You… [Continue Reading]

If you own an Xbox One, you know there are a lot of games available for the console. Hell, there are almost too many from which to choose -- a good problem, I suppose. Let's not forget all the DLC too! I personally feel overwhelmed by the number of games being announced these days, but I digress. While the Xbox One consoles come with a good amount of drive space (500GB or 1TB), it can fill up very quickly. Thankfully, you can easily expand the storage using an external USB drive. For the best performance, a USB solid state drive… [Continue Reading]

A security researcher has discovered a vulnerability in the OnePlus 6 bootloader. The flaw makes it possible for someone to boot arbitrary or modified images -- even if the bootloader is locked. Exploiting the vulnerability requires someone to have physical access to the phone, and after this it is a relatively simple task to restart the handset in fastboot mode. From here is would be possible to load a modified boot image, including one that has root access. See also: OnePlus unveils the OnePlus 6 smartphone, with glass back and inevitable notch Major leak reveals OnePlus 6 pricing, pictures and… [Continue Reading]

There is a new remote installation feature available in the Microsoft Store on the web, making it possible to install apps on Windows 10 devices even if you are not currently using them. Working much like the option found in Google Play that lets Android users push apps to any of the devices they have associated with their Google account, the new feature from Microsoft provides a similar ability with Windows 10 apps. See also: Windows 10 April 2018 Update breaks SMBv1 Microsoft releases Windows 10 Redstone 5 Build 17686 Avast fixes the issue that caused problems with Windows 10… [Continue Reading]

It's not long since Google rolled out a major redesign to Gmail on the web, bringing not only a new look, but also new features. Now it's the turn of the Gmail app for Android. The mobile app has supported swipe gestures for some time now, but the options have been rather limited -- toggling between read/unread or archiving/deleting messages. With Gmail 8.5.20 Google is now giving users no fewer than five actions to choose from when performing a left or right swipe. See also: Gmail's new 'Smart Compose' feature writes replies for you Google rolls out massive Gmail redesign… [Continue Reading]

There has been a lot of talk recently about Facebook tracking users (and non-users) as they browse the internet. Ever a proponent of user empowerment, Adblock Plus has unveiled new features that make it possible to block tracking through social media buttons. The company notes that Apple promised at WWDC to block social tracking, but with Adblock Plus this feature is available right now, regardless of whether you're an Apple customer. The only limitation is that you need to be using either Chrome or Firefox as your web browser. See also: Facebook bug makes millions of users' private posts public… [Continue Reading]

It is no secret that Microsoft would like people to move away from the decades-old SMBv1 protocol -- the same protocol that was exploited by Wannacry. The company has been trying to encourage users to seek out an alternative or move to a more recent version for some time. Now people are starting to discover that upgrading to Windows 10 April 2018 Update kills the protocol. Users have taken to forums to complain that the latest Windows 10 update disables SMBv1, and even goes as far as blocking it from being re-enabled. See also: Microsoft releases Windows 10 Redstone 5… [Continue Reading]

The world is crazy right now. We have a reality TV star in the White House, and day after day, there are unbelievable things being reported in the news. Sometimes I wonder if I am dreaming, but sadly, this is real life. Try as I might, I can't wake up. You know what else is crazy? The Linux Foundation is officially endorsing Microsoft's acquisition of GitHub! OK, maybe that isn't so crazy nowadays, but if you could get in a time machine and go back, say, 10 years, and you told people that not only was Microsoft an official Linux Foundation… [Continue Reading]

Antibody-Software has released WizFile 2.0, a major update to its freeware Windows file-searching tool. The program -- also available in portable form -- provides users with lightning quick filename-based searches of their entire computer. Version 2.0 adds support for non-NTFS hard drives, allows users to specify individual folders or network shares for more targeted searches and WizFile 2.0 opens by widening support to any drive, not simply those formatted using the NTFS file system. However, these aren’t selected by default -- users should choose Options > Select Drives… to add them. The Select Drives… dialog also makes it possible for… [Continue Reading]

Beats headphones are really good. Yes they are overpriced, but no, they are not form over function. They are simultaneously fashion statements and high-quality headphones. In other words, even if a consumer buys them only because they are trendy and look cool, the person will still end up with a great product. Apple is known for fun and bright designs -- its Watch bands, for instance, are full of color. Let's not forget the original iMac line which changed the computer industry forever. Now, Apple is making its Solo3 Wireless ($299.95) and Powerbeats3 Wireless ($199.95) super funky with the all-new… [Continue Reading]

During the month of June, we will be running several giveaways to celebrate the 20th birthday of BetaNews. Wow, 20 years... can you believe it? We owe our success to our loyal readers, who have stuck by us for two decades. We are happy to reward some of you with some seriously awesome prizes. Today is our fourth hardware giveaway, and this time, it is gaming related. It is the super-premium HyperX Cloud Alpha gaming headset. It is not just for PC either -- it also works with Xbox, PS4, Switch, and mobile. Of course, you can use it for… [Continue Reading]

Apple has reportedly warned suppliers that there will be a 20 percent drop in orders for new iPhone parts. The news comes courtesy of the Nikkei which cites industry sources. Factoring in a drop in orders of one fifth, it seems that Apple expects to sell 80 million new model iPhones this year, down from 100 million. Apple is thought to be planning to launch three new iPhone models later this year, and it appears the company expects to sell fewer than it did with the iPhone X and iPhone 8. See also: Apple wants you to spend less time… [Continue Reading]

Currency miners continue to top the malware charts according to Check Point Software's latest Global Threat Index. May 2018 marks the fifth consecutive month where cryptomining malware has dominated Check Point's index. The Coinhive cryptominer impacted 22 percent of organizations globally during May -- up from 16 percent in April, an increase of nearly 50 percent. Coinhive retained the top spot as the most prevalent malware with Cryptoloot -- another crypto-mining program -- ranked second with a global reach of 11 percent. For the second consecutive month, the Roughted malvertising malware came in third, affecting eight percent of organizations. Check… [Continue Reading]

Two-hundred-and-eighty-six in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps, games and extensions released for Windows 10 on the Windows Store in the past seven days. As always, if I've missed an app or game that has been released this week that you believe is particularly good, let me know in the comments below or notify me via email. Discounts this week The following list is a selection of the best deals. Make sure you check out the Store for all offers. Some apps are discounted for more than one week. Only new apps and games are listed… [Continue Reading]

Yahoo Messenger is to be discontinued in just over a month. Yahoo owner Oath has announced that it is killing off its famous Messenger service on July 17. After this date, chatting will no longer be available, and users have just six months to download their chat histories. At the moment, there is no direct replacement for Yahoo Messenger, but users are being advised that they can request an invite for the beta version of the invite-only group messaging app Yahoo Squirrel. In an FAQ about the announcement, Yahoo addresses why the decision to shutter the service was taken. "We… [Continue Reading]

Google has published new guidelines describing its principles for the development of artificial intelligence. The document -- entitled "Artificial Intelligence at Google: Our Principles" -- the company sets out its objectives for the future of AI. As well as saying it will incorporate its privacy principles into AI, Google says that it will continue to work with the military, but commits to avoid helping with the development of weapons or other technologies that could injury or kill. See also: When artificial intelligence goes bad: Reddit made 'Norman' a psychopathic AI Keep track of the World Cup with Google Google brings… [Continue Reading]

Last week event ticketing company Ticketfly suffered a cyberattack which saw the site taken offline for a number of days. The site is now back up and running, and Ticketfly has revealed the extent and impact of the hack. The company says that data from 27 million Ticketfly accounts was accessed, including names, addresses, email addresses and phone numbers. Customers are assured that passwords and credit card details remain safe. See also: Ticketfly remains offline following hack attack in which user data was accessed Canada: Bank of Montreal and Simplii Financial hit by hackers US and UK issue joint warning… [Continue Reading]

Facebook is in the process of contacting 14 million users after it emerged that a bug led to private posts being made public. A problem with the company's "audience selector" tool between May 18 and 27 meant that millions of posts meant for a limited audience were actually made available for everyone and anyone to see. The social network has apologized for the incident and says that it will notify everyone who was affected by the bug. The SNAFU comes at a bad time for Facebook, as the company tries to rebuild a reputation tattered by the Cambridge Analytica scandal,… [Continue Reading]

YouTube is a place where people can upload content with differing opinions and thoughts. That is what's so great about Google's video service -- you can find many points of view on various topics. Of course, the search giant can't leave all content up -- messages of hate, violence, and discrimination have no place on YouTube and are removed regularly. That's why it was so sad when some creators were claiming recent discrimination, pointing to demonetization for no other reason than their content being LGBTQ-related. This followed a disappointing discovery last year, where some such content was being "restricted" in… [Continue Reading]

There was once a time where most smartphones had hardware keyboards. There were BlackBerry and Palm Treo devices that were an absolute joy to type on. Apple's iPhone wasn't the first smartphone to forgo a physical keyboard entirely, but it is responsible for popularizing it. As a result, Palm and BlackBerry lost almost all of their marketshare, ultimately becoming a footnote in smartphone history. And now, most smartphones are touchscreen-only for typing. While BlackBerry no longer makes smartphones, it does license its name to a company called TCL which makes Android devices that carry the branding -- and sometimes, a… [Continue Reading]

ZTE has been persona non grata in the US for some time now, with the Trump administration having slapped a Denial Order on the company preventing it from operating in North America. The president expressed a desire to get the Chinese firm "back into business" and today that is a step closer to happening. Today the US Department of Commerce has come to an agreement with the company, which will pay a $1 billion fine for violating sanctions. In addition, ZTE will make changes to management, and put a further $400 million in escrow to cover possible future fines. See… [Continue Reading]

For many in the USA, having access to the internet is a given -- we don't give it a second thought. When you are home, you have broadband and Wi-Fi, and when out and about, your smartphone has LTE. In other countries, however, access to the internet isn't as ubiquitous. India, for instance, has many locations where getting online is a hardship. Google has been looking to change this with its "Next Billion Users" initiative, and one of its projects -- "Google Station" -- has seen tremendous growth. You see, the search giant has been gradually adding free Wi-Fi hotspots… [Continue Reading]

Using one of four common attack vectors, 71 percent of surveyed IT professionals believe they could successfully hack any organization. Based on a survey carried out among attendees to the RSA Conference in April 2018 by vulnerability management specialist Outpost24, 34 percent say that they would use social engineering, 23 percent say they would enter via insecure web applications, 21 percent via mobile devices, while a further 21 percent say they would enter via a public cloud. "Our study shows how confident IT professionals are that most of today's organizations are not as secure as they might believe, and will… [Continue Reading]

With just days until the 2018 FIFA World Cup kicks off in Russia, Google is rolling out a series of tools to help football fans keep track of what's going on. A range of Google services -- Search, News, Assistant, Trends and more -- have been updated with World Cup-specific bits and pieces to help enhance your enjoyment of the tournament. From match streams and detailed reports to behind-the-scenes footage and tips about where you can watch games, there's something for every fan here. During the World Cup, Google Search can be used to keep track of group tables, stats… [Continue Reading]

Starting next year, Amazon Prime subscribers in the UK will be able to stream some Premier League matches. The company has won the right to show 20 games per season between 2019 and 2022. The online retailer managed to muscle in on territory dominated by BT and Sky to secure the right to show all 10 Boxing Day matches, as well as the first round of mid-week fixtures. See also: Amazon Echo secretly records couple's conversation... and then sends it on to a contact Amazon Fire TV Cube puts Alexa in control of your home entertainment Amazon brings Alexa to… [Continue Reading]

As more systems move to the cloud, companies often struggle with factors like costs and incident response due to a lack of visibility. Operations management platform OpsRamp is launching an update to its SaaS platform that delivers greater visibility for multi-cloud environments and features a new Artificial Intelligence for IT Operations (AIOps) inference engine for more powerful alerting and event correlation. OpsRamp 5.0 features dashboard widgets that show the geographical distribution of IT assets across datacenter and cloud environments; public cloud spend to date, with a breakdown by cloud account, by custom attributes, and other criteria; and public cloud cost… [Continue Reading]

AI is, of course, one of the latest big buzzwords in the tech industry, but here’s something new: Norman, the world’s first "psychopathic" artificial intelligence, as concocted by researchers at MIT. So, you might wonder, how do you make a psychopath in the world of machine learning? Simple -- you pack the AI in question off for a vacation on Reddit. Or the "darkest corners" of Reddit, as the MIT researchers put it. Norman -- who is, obviously enough, named after the character from the film (and more recently the TV series) Psycho -- is really an exercise in how an… [Continue Reading]

It was only a matter of time before Amazon properly combined two of its biggest home grown product lines -- Fire TV and Amazon Echo -- and today we get to see what the end result looks like. Amazon Fire TV Cube is a hands-free 4K Ultra HD streaming media player with Alexa built in, allowing you to control your TV from across the room. You can use your voice to play, pause, and resume content, but that’s not all. In addition, you can control your compatible TV, sound bar, A/V receiver, and cable or satellite box, turn your TV… [Continue Reading]

Cybercriminals are increasingly using the dark web to facilitate cryptocurrency theft on a large scale, according to cybersecurity company Carbon Black. The company’s research has uncovered a total of $1.1 billion in cryptocurrency-related thefts during the past six months and finds there are currently an estimated 12,000 dark web marketplaces selling approximately 34,000 offerings related to crypto theft. These vary widely in price, from as low as $1.04, to as high as $1,000 per offering. The average listing price was $224, while the 'sweet spot' for pricing was around $10. The listings are keen to promote the simplicity of using… [Continue Reading]

As we enter the summer people start to go away on vacations and visit sporting events like this year's World Cup in Russia, potentially exposing their digital devices and data to extra risks. VPN advice service vpnMentor has produced a report looking at the particular risks travelers face and how they can protect themselves. The biggest hazard comes from public Wi-Fi which leaves data open to interception. The report recommends avoiding the use of public Wi-Fi if you can, or if you have to use it do so through a VPN service. It also warns about copycat access points that masquerade… [Continue Reading]

Everybody needs a backup -- with ransomware added to the list of threats to your data, now is the perfect time to take full advantage of our first BetaNews full software giveaway: O&O DiskImage 11 Professional, worth $49.95, this Thursday (June 7). What makes O&O DiskImage 11 special is that it enables you to back up both individual files and folders as well as take a full drive image, so you can protect key data alongside your fail-safe drive image covering your entire Windows installation -- all from one application. The program is simple to use -- the main user… [Continue Reading]

It's just a couple of weeks since we first heard about the VPNFilter malware. Linked to Russia, the malware hit 500,000 routers around the world, but now Cisco's Talos security researchers are warning that the problem is much worse than anyone thought. Initially thought to only affect SOHO routers and storage devices from Linksys, MikroTik, Netgear, TP-Link, and QNAP , the at-risk list has been extended to include consumer-grade routers from Linksys, MikroTik, Netgear and TP-Link. Researchers have also discovered that the malware is more powerful than initial assessments suggested -- it is now known to be able to bypass… [Continue Reading]

Gmail is a great tool for personal email, but for business, not so much. Don't get me wrong, some organizations use it with great success, but overall, it is a bit weak. If you are a professional that uses Gmail, please know there is a really cool tool to enhance the service -- Mixmax. If you aren't familiar, Mixmax leverages a special Chrome plugin to breathe new life into Google's email service -- we reported on it back in 2015. It lets you do things like track email engagement, more easily schedule meetings, and embed presentations, to name a few.… [Continue Reading]

Logitech makes great hardware for home consumers, including mice, keyboards, and more. The company even sells respected gaming peripherals under its "Logitech G" branding. Home aside, Logitech also makes excellent business hardware, such as presentation remotes and video conference cameras. Speaking of the latter, today the company unveils its latest such product. Called "Rally," it is a high-end 4K USB cam designed for meeting rooms. It is compatible with many popular services, such as Google Hangouts Meet, Microsoft Skype for Business, and Zoom. "With advanced optics, premium design, and RightSense automation, the standalone Logitech Rally Camera complements third-party speakerphones and audio… [Continue Reading]

Microsoft continues to roll out new Windows 10 RS5 builds on a weekly basis. Build 17686 is available to Fast ring Insiders and those who have opted to Skip Ahead. This build includes some privacy improvements, better localized settings, and updates for Windows Mixed Reality. It also includes a number of improvements, fixes, and known issues. SEE ALSO: Would this foldable Surface Phone running Windows 10 make you switch from Android or iPhone? Windows 10 April 2018 Update rolling out at an impressive rate The privacy tweak relates to the microphone. If access to it has been disabled by you… [Continue Reading]

Microsoft GVFS (Git Virtual File System) has attracted attention because it's a name that's already in use elsewhere -- and the company had refused to rename it. Now, however, it seems that Microsoft may be bowing to pressure. The company says it has received a lot of feedback because of the existence of the GNOME GVfs project (Gnome Virtual File System) which has been around for much longer than its GVFS Git extension, and it is looking for suggestions for a new name. See also: GitLab makes premium plans free for educational establishments and open source projects Microsoft officially announces… [Continue Reading]

Throughout the entire month of June, BetaNews will giving away thousands of dollars of amazing prizes to celebrate our 20th birthday! Our third giveaway is a Meural Canvas handcrafted 27in digital art frame courtesy of Wellbots. This is a spectacular product built to showcase high quality artwork. Each frame gives you instant access to amazing works of art and photography, and it’s easy to upload your own images to the Wi-Fi enabled canvas. You can change the art on display by using the smartphone or desktop apps or touch-free gesture control. As Wellbots explains: You can change what you see with… [Continue Reading]

Microsoft's acquisition of GitHub has paid off for rival GitLab. Many GitHub users were unhappy at the Windows-maker's involvement and promptly jumped ship -- there were over 100,000 repositories imported in the 24 hours following the acquisition, and #movingtogitlab was trending on Twitter. Looking to make itself even more attractive than just not being owned by Microsoft, GitLab has now made its premium Gold and Ultimate packages free to some users, specifically educational establishments and open source projects. See also: Microsoft unveils IoT-ready Windows Collaborative Displays Microsoft officially announces agreement to acquire GitHub in $7.5 billion deal Microsoft will roll… [Continue Reading]

Mobile devices now account for around half of web traffic and inevitably that makes them more attractive to hackers who see new attack routes via mobile apps. The Information Security Forum is launching a new paper, Securing Mobile Apps: Embracing Mobile, Balancing Control, describing the security challenges associated with acquiring, using and operating mobile apps, and suggesting actions to manage those challenges, while maintaining the business benefits. "Mobile devices are always on, continuously network connected, and have an affinity for being lost or stolen -- yet typically lack the security protection afforded to IT systems. Consequently, app security is tightly… [Continue Reading]

Want to get ahead in the workplace? Take control of your career today. Learn new skills and increase your visibility as a leader in your company with the help of this practical, hands-on guide to professional development. You'll find new techniques for being a better leader, tips for writing better emails, rules for running more effective meetings, and much more. Plus, you'll discover how to give presentations that will keep your audience engaged and learn to be a more mindful person. Combined from seven of the best For Dummies books on career development topics, this resource is your one-stop guide to… [Continue Reading]

You may be wondering why I’ve chosen to specifically focus on "insider" breaches. The answer is simple, virtually every breach of any consequence has been the result of abuse, misuse, or hijacking of legitimate user credentials. More often than not the credential in question is an administrative login such as root (aka Superuser), database administrator, system administrator, or any of the myriad of admin accounts that proliferate every business system that processes and stores sensitive data. Let me start by providing you with some background. In order for an employee to complete work on their company’s network, they must have… [Continue Reading]

At Computex, ASUS has revealed its new ZenBook Pro 15 laptop. This is a high-performance machine, but this is a laptop that's about more than just raw power. In addition to the 8th Generation Intel Core i9 hexa-core processor and 16GB of 2400Hz DDR4 RAM, the new ZenBook Pro has an innovative trackpad. As well as controlling the mouse cursor, the traditional trackpad has been replaced with a ScreenPad -- a touch-sensitive screen that can display apps, shortcuts and other information. The ScreenPad is a 5.5-inch FHD (1920 x 1080) Super IPS+ display. It features a glass coating and allows… [Continue Reading]

Enterprises have a clear appetite to move to the cloud, but businesses are creating additional technical complexity and recruitment challenges in the process, according to a new report. The study carried out by 451 Research for cloud provider Skytap finds 67 percent of respondents plan to migrate or modernize at least half their on-premises applications in the next 12-24 months. As a result of this process, nearly two-thirds of respondents expect better customer responsiveness and to be more competitive. However, at least half of respondents to the survey cite common, core business applications including CRM, ERP, and data analytics as… [Continue Reading]

Security operations centers are understaffed according to 45 percent of professionals who work in them, and of those, 63 percent think they could use anywhere from two to 10 additional employees. This is among the findings of a new survey from Exabeam released today at Infosecurity Europe. It shows 62 percent of managers and frontline employees see inexperienced staff as a problem, compared to just 21 percent of CIO and CISOs. Almost half of all respondents (47 percent) cite keeping up with security alerts as their biggest pain point. Technology is more of a pain point for front-line workers (50… [Continue Reading]

Facebook has confirmed that it has data-sharing agreements in place with at least four Chinese companies. Among these companies is Huawei, a firm that has attracted the attention of intelligence agencies in the US because of national security concerns. The news comes not only in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, but also reports this week that Facebook shared data with device manufacturers. The social network said that in addition to Huawei, it has data-sharing contracts with Oppo, Lenovo and TCL -- despite the fact that Facebook is banned in China. See also: New York Times alleges Facebook shared… [Continue Reading]

MyHeritage -- a website that helps people research their family tree and also offers a DNA testing service -- has suffered a "cybersecurity incident". A file containing the usernames and hashed passwords of more than 92 million users was discovered on an external server by a security researcher. The file was found to be genuine and MyHeritage is now undertaking an investigation to determine what happened. The security breach affects all users who signed up to the site up to October 26, 2017. The company says that it is taking steps to inform the relevant authorities in line with GDPR.… [Continue Reading]

In a keynote address at Computex 2018, Microsoft introduced a completely new hardware platform: Windows Collaboration Displays. Designed for use in offices and meeting rooms, the displays are touch-sensitive and can connect to Microsoft Azure Internet of Things spatial recognition via built-in sensors. While clearly related to the Surface Hub, Windows Collaborative Displays have a key difference: you have to supply your own computer hardware. Hook up a computer, and you have digital whiteboard and presentation tool at a fraction of the cost -- although pricing is yet to be confirmed. See also: Microsoft officially announces agreement to acquire GitHub… [Continue Reading]

Every once in a while, a tech device comes a long that changes everything. The iPod forever altered the music industry, while the iPhone and other smartphones made the traditional PC unnecessary for many. Another such product? Amazon's Echo, which ushered in Alexa and the voice assistant hardware explosion. Somehow, an online bookseller managed to beat Apple, Google, and Microsoft to the punch, and ultimately, grab huge marketshare. It's remarkable, really. We Americans tend to take such innovative things for granted. Alexa, for instance, is something we have had for years, but believe it or not, the assistant is not… [Continue Reading]

Having recently set up licensing deals with some major record labels, Facebook has now started introducing new music experiences to the platform. The first of these additions is the ability to share videos with music, but it’s Lip Sync Live which is the more interesting feature. As you can guess from the name, it lets you lip sync to your favorite songs, in real time, and bring in friends and family. To try it out, start a Live video and then choose the Lip Sync Live option. After selecting your song from the list of available tunes, you can add… [Continue Reading]

The biggest challenges that businesses face when implementing AI projects relate to the handling of data as it often sits in a separate silo. Analytics specialist Databricks is addressing this problem with a Unified Analytics Platform with new capabilities to unify data and AI teams and technologies. It offers MLflow for developing an end-to-end machine learning workflow, Databricks Runtime for ML to simplify distributed machine learning, plus Databricks Delta for data reliability and performance at scale. "To derive value from AI, enterprises are dependent on their existing data and ability to iteratively do machine learning on massive data sets. Today’s… [Continue Reading]

A study by cybersecurity company Webroot in conjunction with the Ponemon Institute finds Florida to be the worst state in the US for cyber-hygiene. Ponemon surveyed 4,000 people across the US about their cybersecurity knowledge and internet safety practices. Wyoming and Montana come close behind Florida in poor internet habits. The safest online behavior is displayed in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Utah. Among the findings are that less than one in four Americans overall (24 percent) regularly monitor bank and credit card statements, block pop-ups, update online account passwords, and take precautions before clicking on an email. Additionally, only 50… [Continue Reading]

A poll of 1,000 IT professionals across North America and Europe finds that while 88 percent of respondents acknowledge the importance of endpoint management, nearly a third don't know how many endpoints they actually manage. The study by identity and access management company LogMeIn shows a worrying 30 percent of IT professionals don't know how many endpoint devices exist within their organization. Those who do report an average of 750 endpoints including servers, employee computers and mobile devices. Though 71 percent of IT professionals claim they are actively addressing security on hardware, 44 percent are not actively addressing security on software… [Continue Reading]

Serverless computing is increasingly popular as it allows developers to upload code for functions to the cloud rather than run it on local servers. But specialist in serverless security PureSec has released a report detailing how hackers can turn a single vulnerable serverless function into a virtual cryptomining farm by taking advantage of the scaleable nature of the architecture. Exploiting the auto-scaling capabilities of serverless architecture, a single attack could hijack resources in order to run hundreds to thousands instances of popular tools that mine cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Monero. Researchers PureSec were able to force serverless functions,… [Continue Reading]

Analysis of malware samples found among finance firms has uncovered an unusually large number of iSpy keylogger samples. iSpy is a variant of the notorious HawkEye logger. Network-based malware protection specialist Lastline intercepted the logger's communication with the command and control server and detected the active exfiltration of website, email and FTP credentials, as well as license key information for installed products. The company's analysis also detected sophisticated Emotet and URSNIF keyloggers being delivered via Microsoft Office documents. These two strains of malware share an evasion module for detecting dynamic analysis environments, and use common methods for infiltrating financial transactions… [Continue Reading]

A new survey from data analytics platform Sumo Logic finds a staggering 98 percent of European companies face organizational challenges implementing security in cloud environments. The survey of over 300 IT security professionals responsible for environments with significant investment in both cloud and on-premise IT infrastructure covered the US and Canada, and Europe, The Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Among the findings are that 41 percent of EMEA respondents say that cloud requires a different approach to security management, compared to just 31 percent in the North America. Also 86 percent of EMEA respondents say that their priorities have changed… [Continue Reading]

In the last 12 months, 44 percent of organizations have suffered at least one data breach. More worrying is that of those reporting a data breach, the average was almost 30 data breaches per organization in the last year. This is according to a study from identity management company SailPoint, released at this week's Infosecurity Europe. These breaches cost the organizations nearly $1 million to address from an IT perspective, which excludes fines, lost revenue and brand damage. Perhaps the most troubling survey finding, however, is that nine percent of IT leaders surveyed couldn't confidently say whether or not their organizations had… [Continue Reading]

For the entire month of June, BetaNews will be having many giveaways. Why? To celebrate our 20th birthday! Our first such contest went live last week, and if you haven't yet entered, you should. That prize is the Linksys Velop Dual-Band Whole Home Mesh Wi-Fi System, and it rocks! Today, our second such giveaway begins, and yet again, the prize is really nice. What is it? The Wyze Cam Pan. This is the second generation home Wi-Fi security camera from Wyze Labs, and it adds a feature normally reserved for more expensive models -- pan and tilt. Using your smartphone, you can… [Continue Reading]

This year's Apple WWDC has been all about software, with the focus on new versions of iOS, watchOS, tvOS, and of course macOS. The next version of the Mac desktop operating system will be called Mojave -- named after the Californian desert -- and introduces a number of new features and improvements, including a cool new Dark Mode. SEE ALSO: Apple reveals performance-focused iOS 12 for a massive range of iPhones and iPads Apple wants you to spend less time on your iPhone Apple reveals watchOS 5, complete with new Walkie-Talkie app This Dark Mode lets users toggle between a… [Continue Reading]

Apple Watch owners have a new operating system upgrade to look forward to -- watchOS 5. Revealed today at WWDC alongside iOS 12, watchOS 5 introduces a number of new features including a Walkie-Talkie app and a range of new workout-related options. The update brings interactive notifications, improvements to Siri, and the ability to use an Apple Watch in place of a student ID card. Apple also revealed a new Pride Watch face which users can activate for free, and a Pride Edition Woven Nylon band which can be bought for $49. See also: Apple reveals performance-focused iOS 12 for… [Continue Reading]

At Apple's WWDC 2018 keynote today, the tech giant announced a raft of new features coming to iOS 12. If you’re concerned how much time you -- or your family -- spend on your iPhone or iPad, Apple has you covered with its next big release. The company has introduced new options for the Do Not Disturb mode, greater control over notifications, and a Screen Time feature, which lets you see how much you use your phone and apps, and set limits. SEE ALSO: Apple reveals performance-focused iOS 12 for a massive range of iPhones and iPads If you don’t… [Continue Reading]

Today at WWDC 2018, Apple gave us our first look at iOS 12. One of the key focuses of this latest update to Apple's mobile operating system is performance, and the company is bringing iOS 12 to more devices than any other previous version. Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of software engineering, told developers that the update will help to speed up app load times. On the iPhone 6s, for instance, apps load up to 40 percent faster, and the camera loads up to 70 percent faster. iOS 12 will boost performance when necessary, but take the processor down… [Continue Reading]

Ah, Linux Mint. This operating system has its detractors, but for the most part, it is beloved by both Linux beginners and experts alike. True, most of the praise is due to its excellent Ubuntu base, but the Mint team understands what many other distribution maintainers don't -- the overall experience matters. When you install Mint, you are in for a polished treat -- it is clear that the developers truly care about the end users. Today, Linux Mint 19 "Tara" Beta finally sees release. Three desktop environments are available -- Cinnamon (3.8), MATE (1.20), and Xfce (4.12). All of these… [Continue Reading]

People are happier in their work and more positive about the future if they're working in a digital environment, according to new research. The report from cloud networking company HPE Aruba also shows workers are positive about using more automated technology, challenging the received wisdom that we’re all scared about machines taking our jobs. The survey of 7,000 employees across 15 countries reveals almost all respondents (93 percent) think their workplace would be improved through greater use of technology, while 64 percent say their company will fall behind the competition if new technology isn't implemented. The same portion (64 percent)… [Continue Reading]

Employees often spend valuable time keeping their various work apps coordinated and synchronized, which harms productivity. Cloud-based mobile app building platform Appy Pie is addressing this problem with the launch of its 'Connect' tool, a productivity solution that allows businesses to streamline tasks and automate workflow across multiple applications simultaneously. Connect increases enterprise productivity by allowing workers and businesses to automate tasks and helps synchronise work from application to application. It allows businesses and employees the ability to establish their own 'Connects' between 20 of the most commonly used apps supported by the Appy Pie Connect network. Apps supported include… [Continue Reading]

Windows 10 Mobile might be all but dead and buried, but there have been rumors of a new Surface Phone for a while now. The phone, should it exist, is expected to be a foldable device with a hinge in the middle and two displays, allowing it to switch from phone to tablet mode in seconds. SEE ALSO: Windows XP 2018 Edition is the operating system Microsoft should be making Taking the rumors that abound about the phone, and discovered patents, Harry Dohyun Kim has created a concept of the device, which you can see below (via Windows Latest). His… [Continue Reading]

Following months of talks and rumors, Microsoft has finally officially revealed that it has agreed to acquire GitHub. The agreement sees the company acquiring the code repository for $7.5 billion in Microsoft stock. Microsoft says that GitHub will retain its developer-first ethos and will operate independently to provide an open platform for all developers in all industries. The deal is expected to close by the end of the year. See also: Microsoft could be on the verge of buying GitHub Microsoft will roll out 'key' GDPR rights globally... not just in Europe Spectre and Meltdown variant 4: Microsoft, Google and… [Continue Reading]

Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference kicks off today, Monday 4 June, in San Jose, with the big keynote speech scheduled for 10am PDT/1pm EST/6pm BST. As always it will be streamed live so you can tune in at home or (maybe) work. As WWDC is for software developers, Apple doesn’t usually reveal major new hardware, but we are expecting to see a refresh for the iPhone SE, and maybe a new HomePod. Siri may also be getting a new voice. We're also anticipating information on iOS 12, as well as updates to macOS, watchOS and tvOS. There are likely to be… [Continue Reading]

Today at Computex 2018 ASUS Republic of Gamers unveiled its first gaming smartphone, the ROG Phone. That this is a gaming smartphone is not the only "first" claimed by ASUS; it is also described as the world's first smartphone with a 3D vapor-chamber cooling system called GameCool. At the event, ASUS also revealed the ROG Rapture GT-AX11000 router with Wi-Fi speeds of over 10,000Mbps, as well as ROG Ryujin and ROG Ryuo CPU coolers, and ROG Thor 1200W Platinum power supply. See also: New Xiaomi Mi 8 Explorer Edition may be the coolest flagship smartphone right now HTC U12+ is… [Continue Reading]

Virtual reality has skyrocketed in popularity in just a few short years. Ten years ago, VR tech simply wasn’t there, and if it was, the hardware was prohibitively expensive. Now, your smartphone can act as a VR headset. With Google Cardboard, a smartphone with VR capabilities, and a 3D printer, you can gain access to VR tech for almost no cost whatsoever. Low-cost, High-end VR For a truly immersive virtual reality experience, you only need some compatible hardware and a few hundred dollars. While this is still expensive when compared to other media, it’s a bargain considering how expensive VR… [Continue Reading]

Facebook has vigorously denied allegations that it shared user data with the likes of Apple and Samsung through device-integrated APIs. In an article entitled "Facebook Gave Device Makers Deep Access to Data on Users and Friends", the New York Times raised concerns about the social network's privacy practices. The NYT says that Facebook has brokered "data-sharing partnerships with at least 60 device makers" over the last ten years. It alleges that the APIs gave companies access to the data of Facebook users' friends without their explicit consent. The article questions not only Facebook's privacy protections, but also its compliance with… [Continue Reading]

In his weekly message to the Linux community on Sunday, Linus Torvalds announced the release of Linux 4.17. The release comes a couple of months after the first release candidate, and in his message Torvalds also talks about version 5.0 of the Linux kernel. Having previously said that Linux kernel v5.0 "should be meaningless", he said that this next major numerical milestone will come around "in the not too distance future". For now, though, it's version 4.17 -- or Merciless Moray, if you prefer -- that's of interest. See also: Microsoft made its own IoT-ready Linux kernel for Azure Sphere… [Continue Reading]

There have long been rumors that Microsoft has an interest in buying GitHub, but in recent weeks it seems that talks between the two companies have been getting more serious. Talks between Microsoft and GitHub have been going on for a number of years now, and a new report suggests that an acquisition is closer than ever. While Microsoft share prices rose at the news, GitHub users are less convinced that the move would be a good idea. See also: Microsoft will roll out 'key' GDPR rights globally... not just in Europe Spectre and Meltdown variant 4: Microsoft, Google and… [Continue Reading]

Yesterday -- following the sudden and unexplained disappearance of the Tablets section of the Android website -- we, like many others, wondered if Google was walking away from tablets completely. Today we know that the answer is "no". The section has made a reappearance after its earlier vanishing act, and a bug has been blamed... but not everyone is convinced. See also: Is Google getting out of the tablet business? Fortnite for Android is coming very soon Google will require OEMs to provide regular Android security updates Court rules that Samsung doesn't need to update older phones The brief vacation… [Continue Reading]

Just yesterday, we shared that The GNOME Project moved to GitLab. This was a major score for GitLab, but also, an important move for GNOME as well -- it should greatly improve collaboration between its contributors. GNOME is not alone in its move to that Git-repository manager, however, as GIMP (plus the babl and GEGL libraries) also made the transition. Actually, believe it or not, GNOME is hosting GIMP there. If you aren't familiar with GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program), please know that it is an open source image/graphics editor/manipulator. It is very similar to Adobe Photoshop, although GIMP is totally free. In… [Continue Reading]

A developer discovered a video on Apple servers that not only shows Xcode 10 running on macOS 10.14, but also reveals a dark mode as well as an icon for the Mac News app nestling in the Dock. The leak comes just days ahead of this year's WWDC. Steven Troughton-Smith found the video in an API for the Mac App Store backend, and leaked his findings to an eager audience. Coming direct from Apple's servers, this leak is something of a rarity as it gives a glimpse of what's coming up in macOS pretty much direct from the horse's mouth.… [Continue Reading]

Google has removed the Tablets section from the top of its Android website, sparking talk that the company is dropping tablets altogether. It has been some time since we saw an Android tablet from Google, so the move would not be entirely surprising. What took many people by surprise however, was the fact that Google dropped the Tablets section of its website without any sort of announcement. See also: Fortnite for Android is coming very soon Google will require OEMs to provide regular Android security updates Court rules that Samsung doesn't need to update older phones If you take a… [Continue Reading]

Event ticketing service Ticketfly -- owned by Eventbrite -- has fallen victim to what it describes as a "cyber incident". The company took down its website late on Thursday, and it remains inaccessible two days later. The full extent of the security breach is not yet known, but Ticketfly says that "some client and customer information" was compromised. The attack saw the site defaced with an Anonymous-style masked figure from the movie V for Vendetta, and the hacker threatened to provide download links to customer databases. A hacker by the name of IShAkDz has claimed responsibility. See also: Canada: Bank… [Continue Reading]

GNOME is one of the most important open source projects on the planet. Even if you use an alternative desktop environment, such as KDE or Xfce, you cannot deny that GNOME's contributions have largely shaped the path of Linux on the desktop for the better. Don't forget, GNOME is much more than just a DE -- many of its apps are essential. That's probably why someone (or something) recently pledged to donate $1 million to it -- GNOME's existence and success is a must for the Linux community. Today, The GNOME Foundation makes a very big announcement -- the project… [Continue Reading]

WinStep Software Technologies has updated its flagship products, WinStep Nexus Dock and WinStep Extreme, to version 18.5. Despite the point release, WinStep is billing this as a "massive release". Docks are now accessible through NextSTART while the Media Player’s internal command gains enhanced features for unobtrusive music playback. There are also numerous improvements and features added to the Nexus Dock component. WinStep Nexus Dock 18.5 -- which is completely free -- gains lots of attention with this new release. The aforementioned Media Player enhancements improve the recently introduced internal commands for adding Media Player functionality direct to the dock. Playlists are… [Continue Reading]

Facebook has announced plans to kill off the Trending feature of its newsfeed. The social network says that this is to "make way for future news experiences". Over the years, Facebook has experimented endlessly with the presentation of news, and has faced criticism for failing to weed out "fake news" and also accusations of liberal bias. Now the company wants to find new ways to help people find news that matters to them, ensuring that it comes from reliable sources. See also: Facebook to ask all users to review privacy settings Facebook asks British users to submit their nudes as… [Continue Reading]

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov says that Apple has stopped approving updates for its mobile app on a worldwide basis. He says that it coincides with Russia implementing a block on Telegram, and it means there have been no updates rolling out to users anywhere in the world for a month and a half. Apple has said nothing about the apparent update block, and the lack of transparency has forced Durov to go public. See also: Download all the information Apple holds about you from its new Data and Privacy portal Apple to add details of government app takedown requests to… [Continue Reading]

Today is officially the day -- BetaNews is celebrating its 20th birthday! While people typically get presents on their birthday, we are flipping the script a bit. To celebrate the occasion, we will be doing giveaways all month long. This is our way to thank our dear readers for two decades of loyalty. Whether you have been a reader since the beginning or you are new to the site, we wish you luck in our many June giveaways. The first giveaway is a really exciting new product from Linksys -- the all new Velop Dual-Band Whole Home Mesh WiFi System. If… [Continue Reading]

One of the problems with choosing an Android phone is that it is difficult to know quite how long it will be supported. While Apple tends to offer updates for quite a number of years, it's a very different story for Android users. Now -- in something of a blow for consumers -- a court in the Netherlands has ruled that Samsung does not need to offer updates for its older handsets. A consumer association filed a lawsuit against the company, arguing that it should be forced to keep phones updated for at least four years; the court disagreed. See… [Continue Reading]

On June 1 1998, BetaNews hit the web for the first time. We’re celebrating the site’s 20th birthday with a huge, month-long giveaway, and there are some truly spectacular products up for grabs. Throughout the month of June, we will be giving away thousands of dollars worth of hardware products, including a mesh Wi-Fi system, Xbox router, digital art frame, robot vacuum cleaner, hardware encrypted hard drive, smart home camera, keyboards, mice, and more! There will be the opportunity to enter multiple times for each product, giving you more chances to win. Below are just some of the the products… [Continue Reading]

Two-hundred-and-eighty-five in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps, games and extensions released for Windows 10 on the Windows Store in the past seven days. Microsoft published a bunch of new PWA applications to the Windows Store. These applications work only on Windows 10 version 1803 or newer. New additions are: Rand McNally, EasterSales, News.com.au, Boots.uk, Rocketmiles, and EBTH. As always, if I've missed an app or game that has been released this week that you believe is particularly good, let me know in the comments below or notify me via email. Discounts this week The following… [Continue Reading]

Ever keen to bolster its family-friendly image, Microsoft has revealed a number of updates to parental control options across a range of apps, services and devices. The company says it wants to "make it easier and safer for families to interact with technology and, each other, across devices and platforms". The changes include updates to Edge and Microsoft Launcher for Android, which allows parents to not only limit what children can see, but also track their whereabouts. Microsoft is also introducing a specially-curated MSN Kids. See also: Microsoft will roll out 'key' GDPR rights globally... not just in Europe Spectre… [Continue Reading]